The Ladies Almanack

By: Djuna Barnes

Continuing her pattern of writing extraordinary books that defy the traditional boundaries of literary form, Djuna Barnes’ The Ladies Almanack is an experimental roman à clef written for and about a community of Parisian lesbians. Unapologetically puzzling, the novel is a celebration of queerness in form and function, often considered to be one of the boldest pieces of lesbian literature ever published.

“…all Ladies should carry about with them [this almanack], as the Priest his Breviary, as the Cook his Recipes, as the Doctor his Physic, as the Bride her Fears, and as the Lion his Roar!”

Unquestionably unique in its execution of narrative, Djuna Barnes’ The Ladies Almanack is an experimental roman à clef that intertwines fiction, myth, and parody into one of the boldest pieces of lesbian literature published in the twentieth century.

Privately printed and distributed by Barnes herself, the novel is considered by many to be the love letter—and inside joke—to the lesbian community that flourished in the literary salon of American writer, Natalie Clifford Barney; with many in the circle appearing pseudonymously within the text.

Confounding both critics and readers alike for almost a century, The Ladies Almanack is an unabashedly puzzling book that exists on its own terms; unapologetically delighting its first audience, confusing it’s expanded audience, and celebrating all that lesbianism was and can be.