Ladies Almanack - Softcover

Barnes, Djuna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1614279292 ISBN 13: 9781614279297

Publisher: Martino Fine Books, 2016

Synopsis

2016 Reprint of 1928 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Carrying the longish title of "Ladies Almanack: showing their signs and their tides; their moons and their changes the seasons as it is with them; their eclipses and equinoxes; as well as a full record of diurnal and nocturnal distempers," Barnes work is a novel in which real persons or actual events figure under disguise. Its subject is the predominantly lesbian social circle centering on Natalie Clifford Barney's salon in Paris in the 1920s. It is written in an archaic, Rabelaisian style, with Barnes's own illustrations in the style of Elizabethan woodcuts. The obscure language, inside jokes and ambiguity of the work have kept critics arguing about whether it is an affectionate satire or a bitter attack, but Barney herself loved the book and re-read it throughout her life.

About this title

Review:

As an 'Almanack, ' the book celebrates the uniqueness of women . . . extolling their society with separatist sentiment not violent or radical so much as mirthful and delightful.

[I]f you are able to contain your cackling long enough to consider the truth underlying the jest, you will come away with an understanding of the dilemmas facing lesbians at the opening of the century. You'll find that they are not much different from the questions we grapple with today. --Lambda Book Report

Djuna Barnes remains a reminder of the Road Not Yet Taken international, devious, perverse, verbally abundant, psychologically subtle. --Edmund White

"Barnes... spoofed the gay and not so gay times of her circle in Ladies Almanack, but if she was able to lampoon it... then she was also able to celebrate it." --Jeanette Winterson

About the Author:

Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) is best known as the author of Nightwood, one of the finest novels of the modernist period. Shw was born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, and worked as a journalist in New York before leaving the country to spend many years in Paris and London. She returned to New York in 1941, and lived in Greenwich Village until her death.

About this edition

• Publisher: Martino Fine Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1614279292
• ISBN 13: 9781614279297
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 88