Chase of the Wild Goose: The Story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, known as the Ladies of Llangollen

Image of book cover of Chase of the Wild Goose: The Story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, known as the Ladies of Llangollen featuring an illustration by Vanessa Bell

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The Vanessa Bell illustration featured on the cover is reproduced with permission from the copyright holder. This item has not been made available with a CC BY-NC-ND licence and cannot be downloaded and shared

Excepting the illustration which remains in copyright, the jacket and publication are over 70 years old and now out of copyright in the UK. Thanks are given to the Society of Illustrators literary estate holders of Virginia and Leonard Woolf.

Held at the E. J. Pratt Library

Source: E.J. Pratt Library

Image Rights Holder: © Estate of Vanessa Bell. All rights reserved, DACS 2023.

Chase of the Wild Goose: The Story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, known as the Ladies of Llangollen

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A collective biography of two women who lived together for fifty years without being separated for a single day. The author suggests that the book has been written to provide a more accurate account of their lives since 'all kinds of exaggerated or untrue stories have been in circulation regarding the reasons for, and the manner of their fight from Ireland. There still exists no biographical account of them which is not in one particular or another based on hearsay, phantasy, or empty conjecture, and the reconstruction of their very interesting story at this date demands the use of various artist's material' (11). The narrative itself is constructed from the women's fragmentary diaries. There is a good deal of interesting reflections on constructing a coherent biographical narrative from a paucity of materials, and Gordon suggests that her methodology is slightly unconventional: 'as for my last chapters, each reader will interpret them according to his own opinion of ghosts.' (13)