Gentleman Jack in Russia: The Incredible Journey of Anne Lister

A new book by Olga Khoroshilova (author of historical books “Russian Travesties,” “Fashion and Geniuses”) is devoted to a journey across Russia by an eccentric English lady—an eminent scholar and traveler. Anne Lister is called “Gentleman Jack.”

From autumn 1839 to summer 1840, Anne Lister traveled across almost all of western and central Russia. She was in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, and Astrakhan. In spring and summer 1840, she traveled through the Caucasus, where Anne Lister died suddenly.

During her journey, Lister met and became friends with many famous Russian aristocrats—Golytsyns, Panins, Tolstoys, Pushchins, Trubetskoys… A passionate but platonic romance connected her with Venera of Moscow, the well-known beauty Sophia Radziwill, whom Pushkin loved. Her diary’s tender, coded pages, as well as letters, are devoted to her.

Anne Lister’s Russian diary is simply a treasure trove of invaluable information—from Russian balls and dishes to descriptions of nature, people, market prices, and so on. There is one problem, though: it was written in ciphers and shorthand in two languages and has not been decrypted or published until now. Olga Khoroshilova mastered Anne’s shorthand and ciphers and also found unpublished Russian letters by Lister (in French) from our most illustrious aristocrats, preserved in British and Russian archives, and wrote an astonishing historical novel based on them.

The book includes many illustrations, including drawings by Anne Lister.