{"product_id":"diana-a-strange-autobiography-9780814726358","title":"Diana: A Strange Autobiography","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis is the unusual and compelling story of Diana, a tantalizingly beautiful woman who sought love in the strange by-paths of Lesbos. Fearless and outspoken, it dares to reveal that hidden world where perfumed caresses and half-whispered endearments constitute the forbidden fruits in a Garden of Eden where men are never accepted.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is how \u003ci\u003eDiana: A Strange Autobiography\u003c\/i\u003e was described when it was published in paperback in 1952. The original 1939 hardcover edition carried with it a Publisher's Note: \u003ci\u003eThis is the autobiography of a woman who tried to be normal.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the book, Diana is presented as the unexceptional daughter of an unexceptional plutocratic family. During adolescence, she finds herself drawn with mysterious intensity to a girl friend. The narrative follows Diana's progress through college; a trial marriage that proves she is incapable of heterosexuality; intellectual and sexual education in Europe; and a series of lesbian relationships culminating in a final tormented triangular struggle with two other women for the individual salvation to be found in a happy couple. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In her introduction, Julie Abraham argues that \u003ci\u003eDiana\u003c\/i\u003e is not really an autobiography at all, but a deliberate synthesis of different archetypes of this confessional genre, echoing, as it does, more than a half-dozen novels. Hitting all the high and low points of the lesbian novel, the book, Abraham illustrates, offers a defense of lesbian relationships that was unprecedented in 1939 and radical for decades afterwards.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAbraham, Julie L.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eJulie L. Abraham\u003c\/b\u003e is Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies at Emory University.","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50328794431762,"sku":"9780814726358","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3a4d8933-f07a-456b-be32-f1e4e55c79b6.jpg?v=1727752119","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/diana-a-strange-autobiography-9780814726358","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}