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So I really appreciated the lighthearted tone and happy ending of this book. Historical novels with lesbian characters often involve physical/psychological abuse, isolation, and sadness. What I loved most about this book was its determined effort not to be tragic. It's a great reminder that untraditional women throughout history did have fabulous, fascinating, and long lives. Great to read. I just finished Moll Cutpurse and found it absolutely enchanting.
Told from the point of view of her lover, the story covers Moll's early wish to be a man, later acceptance of her unique brand of femaleness, and some of her famous adventures. Even many of my favorite books (most of Sarah Waters, most of Emma Donoghue) fall into that category. It's one of my new favorite books. I also loved that the Moll had an apologetically feminist mindset. Reminds me a bit of Patience and Sarah. The novel is a fictionalized account of Mary Firth, a famous cross dresser who pops up frequently in gender studies texts.
It never sugarcoats the (often unpleasant) reality of being a woman in the 1600s; but the tone was playful, hilarious and satirical.
Mary Frith, Galford's wonderful story is sure to appeal to those fans of Jeanette Winterson and Sarah Waters. Somewhat based on the real life of Moll Cutpurse, a.k.a. Bridget is the daughter of an apothecary in the late 1500s in England. She meets the swashbuckling heroine Moll, and the two end up having a lifelong love affair, punctuated by Moll's many adventures.
Read it. Ellen Galford's novel is not a rewrite of Defoe's Moll Flanders. Ellen Galford is the funniest and most intelligent contemporary (lesbian) writer I've found. Read all her work. Dekker and Middleton's play "The Roaring Girl" was based on a actual London personage-- Moll Cutpurse, who also inspired the pamphlet debate "Hic Mulier/Haec Vir" by her cross dressing in men's clothes. Galford brings to life the "Roaring Girl" in hopefully more of the spirit in which she actually lived.
After reading DeFoe's sensationalized drama of a poor hapless young girl being used and abused by men, this book about a swashbuckling lesbian petty thief by the same name is quite a relief--and a good chuckle.
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