“Everything done for effect”: georgic, gothic and picturesque in anne lister's self-production

Abstract

Anne Lister (1791-1840), a rural gentlewoman, directed the renovation and landscaping of Shibden Hall, near Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, at a time when it was rare for women to control their physical environment. In this article it is argued that in her architectural schemes, as in her four million-word diary, Lister constructed a narrative of self that would reinforce her social conservatism while reconciling and exploring her lesbian sexuality. Her interest in the picturesque and Gothic was stimulated by their ability to combine display with concealment. The ferme ornée also recommended itself by its association with the female-female bonding epitomised by the Ladies of Llangollen, and, more notoriously, with the transgressive desires of Marie Antoinette. At Shibden Hall, Lister combined these styles and ideas with aspects of Georgic traditionalism to produce a landscape suited to her self-production both as Tory landowner and as a lover of women.