Chase of the Wild Goose

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.

"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"- Sarah Waters; --- "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 and other vital works of literary-historical criticism.; --- "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.