Chase of the Wild Goose - EPUB

Mary Gordon

New afterword by Nicola Wilson

Published 1 February 2023

The story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, known as the Ladies of Llangollen

“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 inter-war 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 of the Wild Goose celebrates the search – and psychic need – for queer foremothers, and delights in finding them.

“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.

Mary Louisa Gordon (1861-1941) lived a pioneering late nineteenth century feminist life. Chase of the Wild Goose (1936) is inspired, in part, by Gordon’s experience of studying analytical psychology with Carl and Emma Jung.