Chase of the Wild Goose
Mary Gordon
The story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, known as the Ladies of Llangollen
“Gordon’s spirited, romantic account of the lives of the Ladies of Llangollen is a fascinating piece of queer literary history in its own right. A claiming of kinship, across time, with two remarkable women, it’s a deeply feminist work, a celebration of courage and nonconformity. It’s also endearingly odd! Part biography, part novel, part spiritual memoir, it’s wholly bold and eccentric and I’m delighted to see it reprinted.”
“They made a noise in the world which has never since died out, and which we, their spiritual descendants, continue to echo.”
Late 18th century Ireland.
Two women from noble families – Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby – meet and form an intense romantic friendship.
Against the will of their families – and overcoming the many obstacles placed before them – they leave Ireland and finally settle at Plas Newydd, North Wales.
It is here they achieve fame and notoriety; it is here they become the Ladies of Llangollen.
Chase of the Wild Goose is the forgotten queer novel of the interwar era – an amiable companion to Woolf’s time-travelling Orlando and joyful antidote to the misery of The Well of Loneliness.
A historical fiction dedicated to the Ladies of Llangollen, first published by the Hogarth Press in 1936, Gordon’s Chase celebrates the search – and psychic need – for queer foremothers, and delights in finding them.
With a new afterword by Nicola Wilson.
Published 1 February 2023
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Published 1 February 2023 *
Mary Louisa Gordon, photographed in 1920
Mary Louisa Gordon (1861-1941) lived a pioneering late nineteenth century feminist life.
Part of the first generation of doctors to be trained at the London School of Medicine for Women, she became a prison inspector in 1908, the first ever woman to do so.
Always sympathetic to feminist causes, her work with women prisoners informed her second book Penal Discipline (1922), which advocated for prison reform.
Chase of the Wild Goose (1936) is inspired, in part, by Gordon’s experience of studying analytical psychology with Carl and Emma Jung.
“Chase of the Wild Goose is an exquisite reimagining of the life shared between two women, beloved to one another. It is a tale told with such tenderness; that affirms although we may be haunted by queer trauma, but we can also be haunted by queer joy.”
Sarah-Joy Ford, artist and creator of Beloved: Crafting Intimacies with the Ladies of Llangollen.
“Sharp, witty, and utterly compelling, Mary Gordon’s story of two women who chose each other, and a life of freedom will conquer every heart. The Ladies of Llangollen are witnesses to women’s long struggle against familial oppression and tyranny. They survived, victorious. Their house in Wales became their sanctuary and is now a place of pilgrimage for other sexual insurgents and rebels against a world that threatens our existence. What have the Ladies to say to us now? Refuse to be bullied or coerced. Defend your freedom. Believe in yourselves.”
Patricia Duncker, author of Hallucinating Foucault and many other outstanding literary works.
“The Ladies of Llangollen have become the stuff of legend. Their image began to appear on popular prints, plates, and other souvenirs even during their lifetime. But who were Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, and how can we relate to them? In Chase of the Wild Goose, Mary Gordon, a pioneering physician with a keen interest in psychology, presents a highly original and deeply moving account of the life and home the Ladies built together. The book honours the Ladies as queer feminist ancestors whose unequivocal commitment to freedom and bold defiance of social expectations continues to resonate across the ages. A remarkable example of queer feminist modernist writing, Chase of the Wild Goose playfully undermines readerly expectations and allows us to encounter the Ladies again.”
Jana Funke, author of Sexological Modernism: Queer Feminism and Sexual Science; Sexperts: A History of Sexology, Sex, Gender and Time in Fiction and Culture and other vital works of literary-historical criticism.