The Ladies

by Doris Grumbach

Book Overview

The Ladies is a touching, imaginative retelling of the story of two of history's most interesting characters: Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, well-born Irish women who defied all conventions of their eighteenth-century Irish homeland and eloped to the small hamlet of Llangollen in Wales, where they lived as a married couple. There, removed from the eyes of the world, they hoped to live out their quiet lives. But the world outside gradually came...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393310922
• ISBN13: 9780393310924
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Historical Novel of a Lesbian Couple in 18th Century Ireland

This is a lovely historical novel about two lesbians in 18th century Ireland. They are totally devoted to one another and overcome all sorts of obstacles in order to establish themselves as a family unit on the 'Plas Newydd'. They are quite an eccentric pair. They are a classic 'masculine' (butch) and feminine couple. They entertain critics, writers, royalty, etc. in their home. The novel hypothesizes how a cultured couple such as Eleanor and Sarah would have intermingled with respected, wealthy and knowledgeable personages of their time. They are quite secure financially and never have to contend with poverty. The language is sedate and descriptive, evoking a clear picture of their lives without delving into the passion that is obviously one of their mainsprings. Grumbach mentions it but her style is 'literary divorcee' ' ' she is viewing their lives at a linguistic distance. "They had learned the lessons that made living together possible: to bear each other's failings with fortitude and to freely indulge their own without guilt. They grew more and more like each other. Their faults became common to them both, their virtues a kind of mutual feast that they celebrated together". (p. 180). This quote sounds like the description of any successful relationship that has weathered time and circumstance and still holds together strongly.

The Ladies

This is just a sweet old fashioned love story... a lesbian love story that is. I happened upon a hardcover copy in a used bookstore. The cover looked idyllic, pastoral... two ladies dressed in riding habits, surveying the english countryside. It is a story of the enormous risks they took to be together, and the creative life of beauty that they shared until death. I loved the descriptions of their daily lives... how they passionately strove for their own peaceable kingdom. They lived in an eden of their own makng. Please read this book and be inspired by their example to create your own heaven on earth with those you love...