A review by jensteerswell
No Priest But Love: The Journals, 1824-1826 by Helena Whitbread, Anne Lister

4.0

I read about these diaries in another book about the history of sex and luckily my library had a copy. It's hard to remember sometimes that Anne is not a character in a novel, she's a real person and completely of her time. On the one hand, she is unlucky in love, though not sex. But on the other hand, she's searching in the very narrow category of independently wealthy widows who can move to her estate respectably and help pay for improvements. No poor or non-gentry need apply.

I especially love how when she's not in bed with a conquest, she's touring everything a 'single' woman in early 19th century Europe can access. Her activities are a constant stream of festivals, performances, and museums, interspersed with shopping trips and trying new restaurants.