Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the French-born British writer Violet Paget (14 October 1856 – 13 February 1935). She is remembered today primarily for her

supernatural fiction Supernatural fiction or supernaturalist fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction that is centered on supernatural themes, often contradicting Naturalism (philosophy), naturalist assumptions of the real world. Description In its broadest def ...

and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, Art critic, art and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of t ...

, she wrote over a dozen volumes of essays on art, music and travel.

Biography

Violet Paget was born in France on 14 October 1856, at Château St Leonard,

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...

, to British expatriate parents, Henry Ferguson Paget and Matilda Lee-Hamilton (née Adams). Violet Paget was the half-sister of Eugene Jacob Lee-Hamilton (1845–1907) by her mother's first marriage, and from whose surname she adapted her own

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

. A maternal cousin was British suffragist Alice Abadam. Although she primarily wrote for an English readership and made many visits to London, she spent the majority of her life on the continent in Europe, particularly in Italy. Her longest residence was at Villa Il Palmerino just outside

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, from 1889 until her death at San Gervasio Bresciano in 1935, with a brief interruption during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Her library was left to the British Institute of Florence and can still be inspected by visitors. In Florence she knit lasting friendships with the painter

Telemaco Signorini Telemaco Signorini (; August 18, 1835 – February 10, 1901) was an Italian artist who belonged to the group known as the Macchiaioli. Biography He was born in the Santa Croce quarter of Florence, and showed an early inclination toward the stu ...

and the learned

Mario Praz Sir Mario Praz (; 6 September 1896, Rome – 23 March 1982, Rome) was an Italian critic of art and literature, and a scholar of English literature. His best-known book, ''The Romantic Agony'' (1933), was a comprehensive survey of the decadent, ...

, and she encouraged his love of learning and English literature. An engaged feminist, she always dressed ''à la garçonne''. During the First World War, Lee adopted strong

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

views and was a member of the

anti-militarist Antimilitarism (also spelt anti-militarism) is a doctrine that opposes war, relying heavily on a critical theory of imperialism and was an explicit goal of the First and Second International. Whereas pacifism is the doctrine that disputes (especi ...

organisation the

Union of Democratic Control The Union of Democratic Control was a British advocacy group, pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifism, pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government. World Wa ...

. Scholars speculate that Lee was a lesbian and had long-term intense relationships with three women,

Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She was the country's first female president. Robinson had previously served as a senato ...

Clementina Anstruther-Thomson Clementina "Kit" Caroline Anstruther-Thomson (15 December 1857 – 7 July 1921) was a Scottish author and Theory of art, art theorist. She was known for writing and lecturing on experimental aesthetics during the Victorian era. Her collaboration ...

, and British author

Amy Levy Amy Judith Levy (10 November 1861 – 9 September 1889) was an English essayist, poet, and novelist best remembered for her literary gifts; her experience as the third Jewish woman at Cambridge University, and as the second Jewish student at N ...

. She played the harpsichord and her appreciation of music animates her first major work, ''Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy'' (1880). In her preface to the second edition of 1907, she recalled her excitement as a girl when she came across a bundle of 18th-century music. She was so nervous that it wouldn't live up to her expectations that she escaped to the garden and listened rapturously through an open window as her mother worked out the music on the piano. Along with Pater and

John Addington Symonds John Addington Symonds Jr. (; 5 October 1840 – 19 April 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies of writers and artists. Although mar ...

, she was considered an authority on the Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, and wrote two works that dealt with it explicitly, ''Euphorion'' (1884) and ''Renaissance Fancies and Studies'' (1895). Her short fiction explored the themes of haunting and possession. She dedicated her short ghost story "

A Wicked Voice ''A Wicked Voice'' by Vernon Lee is a short story about a 19th-century Scandinavian composer named Magnus who, haunted by the ghost of an 18th-century Italian singer named Zaffirino, loses his passion for decadent music and instead comes to realize ...

" to composer

Mary Augusta Wakefield Mary Augusta Wakefield (19 August 1853 – 16 September 1910) was a British composer, contralto, festival organiser, and writer. Biography Early life Wakefield was born in Kendal, where her paternal ancestors had been members of the Quakers, ...

in 1887. The most famous stories were collected in ''Hauntings'' (1890) and her story "Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady" (1895) was first printed in the notorious ''

The Yellow Book ''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...

''. She was instrumental in the introduction of the German concept of ''Einfühlung'', or '

empathy Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on another person's perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share and respond to their experience. There are more (sometimes conflicting) definitions of empathy that include but are ...

' into the study of

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

in the English-speaking world. She developed her own theory of psychological aesthetics in collaboration with her lover, Kit Anstruther-Thomson, based on previous works by

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

Theodor Lipps Theodor Lipps (; 28 July 1851 – 17 October 1914) was a German philosopher, known for his theory regarding aesthetics, creating the framework for the concept of ''Einfühlung'' (empathy)'','' defined as, "projecting oneself onto the object of p ...

, and Karl Groos. She claimed that spectators "empathise" with works of art when they call up memories and associations and cause often unconscious bodily changes in posture and breathing. She was known for her numerous essays about travel in Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland, which attempted to capture the psychological effects of places rather than to convey any particular piece of information. Like her friend

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, she wrote critically about the relationship between writers and their audience, pioneering the idea of critical assessment among all the arts as relating to an audience's personal response. She was a proponent of the

Aesthetic movement Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to b ...

and after a lengthy written correspondence, met the movement's effective leader,

, in England in 1881, just after encountering one of Pater's most famous disciples,

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

. Her open resistance against the

Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and her work ''

Satan the Waster Satan, also known as the Devil, is a Devil, devilish non-physical entity, entity in Abrahamic religions who Seduction, seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God in Judaism, God, typically r ...

'' led to her being ostracized by the younger generation of scholars and writers. Feminist research led to a rediscovery since the 1990s. Much of her incoming personal correspondence is preserved in

Somerville College Library Somerville College Library is the academic library, college library of Somerville College, Oxford, Somerville College, one of the 38 colleges of the University of Oxford, colleges of the University of Oxford. The library is one of the largest co ...

. Film of her on holiday in France in the 1930s is held in the archives of Memoire Normandie.

Critical reception

The English writer and translator

Montague Summers Augustus Montague Summers (10 April 1880 – 10 August 1948) was an English author, clergyman, and teacher. As an independent scholar, he published many works on the English drama of the Stuart Restoration (1660–1688) and helped to organise ...

described Vernon Lee as "the greatest ..of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction." Summers also compared Lee's work to that of

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the Univers ...

E. F. Bleiler Everett Franklin Bleiler (April 30, 1920 – June 13, 2010) was an American editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" s ...

has claimed that "Lee's stories are really in a category by themselves. Intelligent, amusingly ironic, imaginative, original, they deserve more than the passing attention that they have attracted". Neil Barron described the contents of Lee's collection ''Hauntings'' thus "The stories are powerful and very striking, among the finest of their kind."

Works

* ''Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy ''(1880) * ''A Culture-Ghost; or, Winthrop's Adventure ''(1881) novella published in the April 1881 issue of

Appletons' Journal ''Appletons' Journal'' was an American magazine of literature, science, and arts. Published by D. Appleton & Company and debuting on April 3, 1869, its first editor was Edward L. Youmans, followed by Robert Carter (editor), Robert Carter, Oliver ...

. * ''Belcaro, Being Essays on Sundry Aesthetical Questions ''(1881) * ''Ottilie: An Eighteenth Century Idyl ''(1883) * ''The Prince of the Hundred Soups: A Puppet Show in Narrative ''(1883) * ''The Countess of Albany ''(1884) * ''Miss Brown ''(1884) novel * ''Euphorion: Being Studies of the Antique and the Mediaeval in the Renaissance'' (1884) * ''Baldwin: Being Dialogues on Views and Aspirations ''(1886) * ''A Phantom Lover: A Fantastic Story ''(1886) novella, also Oke of Okehurst, Alice Oke * ''Juvenilia, Being a second series of essays on sundry aesthetical questions ''(1887) * ''Hauntings. Fantastic Stories ''(1890) * ''Vanitas: Polite Stories ''(1892) * ''Althea: Dialogues on Aspirations & Duties ''(1894) * ''Renaissance Fancies And Studies Being A Sequel To Euphorion ''(1895) * ''Art and Life ''(1896) * ''Limbo and Other Essays ''(1897) * ''Genius Loci: Notes on Places ''(1899) travel essays * ''The Child In The Vatican ''(1900) * ''In Umbria: A Study of Artistic Personality ''(1901) * ''Chapelmaster Kreisler A Study of Musical Romanticists ''(1901) * ''Penelope Brandling: A Tale of the Welsh Coast in the Eighteenth Century ''(1903) * ''The Legend of Madame Krasinska ''(1903) * ''Ariadne in Mantua: a Romance in Five Acts ''(1903) * ''Hortus Vitae: Essays on the Gardening of life ''(1903) * ''Pope Jacynth – And Other Fantastic Tales ''(1904) * ''The Enchanted Woods, and Other Essays on the Genius of Places ''(1905) travel essays * ''Sister Benvenuta and the Christ Child, an eighteenth-century legend ''(1906) * ''The Spirit of Rome: Leaves from a Diary ''(1906) * ''Ravenna and Her Ghosts ''(1907) * ''The Sentimental Traveller . Notes on Places ''(1908) travel essays * ''Gospels of Anarchy & Other Contemporary Studies ''(1908) * ''Laurus Nobilis: Chapters on Art and Life ''(1909) * ''In Praise of Old Gardens ''(1912) with others * ''Beauty and Ugliness and Other Studies in Psychological Aesthetics ''(1912) with Clementine Anstruther-Thomson * ''Vital Lies: Studies of Some Varieties of Recent Obscurantism ''(1912) * ''The Beautiful. An Introduction to Psychological Aesthetics ''(1913) * ''The Tower of the Mirrors and Other Essays on the Spirit of Places ''(1914) travel essays * ''Louis Norbert. A Twofold Romance ''(1914) novel * ''The Ballet of the Nations. A Present-Day Morality ''(1915) illustrations by

Maxwell Armfield Maxwell Ashby Armfield (5 October 1881 – 23 January 1972) was an English artist, illustrator and writer. Life Born to a Quaker family in Ringwood, Hampshire, Ringwood, Hampshire, Armfield was educated at Sidcot School and at Leighton Park Sch ...

* ''Satan the Waster: A Philosophic War Trilogy ''(1920) * ''The Handling of Words and Other Studies in Literary Psychology ''(1923) * ''Proteus or The Future Of Intelligence ''(1925) * ''The Golden Keys and Other Essays on the Genius Loci ''(1925) travel essays * ''The Poet's Eye, Notes on Some Differences Between Verse and Prose ''(Hogarth Press, 1926) * ''For Maurice. Five Unlikely Stories ''(1927) * ''Music and its Lovers: An Empirical Study of Emotional and Imaginative Responses to Music ''(1932)

Editions published posthumously

* ''Snake Lady and Other Stories ''(1954) * ''Supernatural Tales ''(1955) * ''The Virgin of the Seven Daggers – And Other Chilling Tales of Mystery and Imagination ''(1962)

Bilingual editions

* ''Unsere Liebe Frau der Sieben Dolche / The Virgin of the Seven Daggers'', bilingual (German/English) edition. Calambac Publishing House, Saarbrücken 2017. .

Notes and references

External links

* * * * *
Essays by Vernon Lee at Quotidiana.org
* * *
Play ''Ariadne in Mantua'' at Great War Theatre website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Vernon 1856 births 1935 deaths British essayists British poets British women novelists British feminist writers English pacifists English horror writers British ghost story writers English lesbian writers Pseudonymous women writers Victorian novelists Victorian women writers British women essayists British expatriates in Italy English LGBTQ poets English LGBTQ novelists People from Boulogne-sur-Mer British women horror writers British women poets 19th-century British women writers 20th-century British women writers 19th-century British writers 20th-century British writers British weird fiction writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers British expatriates in France British philosophers of art