For over a hundred years, very little has been documented about Amy Levy, one of Victorian literature's most unique voices, who was once praised for her brilliance by the renowned wit.
Today, audiences will get the chance to familiarize themselves with a literary figure whose pioneering work examined the emancipation of women, the Jewish experience, and homosexual longing.
“Seldom nowadays for a complete collection of a 1800s author’s papers to be discovered,” remarked a chief librarian. “We were determined to seize this chance to make her archive open in the place where she was educated and where she spent time even in the last months of her life.”
A Pioneering Life
The author was born in 1861 into a bourgeois Jewish family in London and began studies at Newnham College in 1879, becoming only the next Jewish woman among Cambridge’s pioneering group of female undergraduates.
She authored three volumes of poetry, three novels – featuring Reuben Sachs and The Romance of a Shop – a wealth of essays and a collection of writings for the Jewish Chronicle. When she took her own life in 1889, just 27 years old, she was recognized by her fellow writers as an remarkable ability, with the playwright writing her obituary and praising the “honesty, straightforwardness, and sadness” of her work.
A Layered Character
A noted academic developing a biographical study about Levy commented that she was convinced the papers would not only transform literary criticism but also be of interest to a general readership.
“I studied Amy’s poetry years ago and they have haunted me ever since,” the professor said. “Not only was she a fine and evocative writer, but she was also so complicated. She affirmed her Jewish identity, but she was also an non-believer. She seemed to have good relationships with men, but she was a queer woman.”
The scholar added that Levy had built a community at Newnham and also in her adult life, notably through the writer Vernon Lee “who was extremely networked to many people including Wilde. Levy became part of Lee’s circle, in fact she became enamored with her, a love that sadly was never returned.
“When Wilde was given a brief piece from Levy for his magazine the Woman’s World, he was deeply impressed by the story and called Levy a prodigious talent.”
A Lasting Legacy
Experts contend Levy’s work resonates strongly to modern discussions around gender equality, queer writing and the Jewish plight and say she foreshadowed debate that would come well after her death.
“She was ahead of her time, which was maybe one of the reasons she never entirely found her niche,” the expert said. “She faced challenges with queer identity and how she fit into a heteronormative society. Matrimony was not an option for her, but neither was having a vocation like a school teacher, which she left behind to become a professional writer.
“She has long been interesting to people who examine Jewish women and their history. And today, when we have in the aftermath of the international epidemic so many young people battling melancholy, anxiety, mental health issues, even self-harm, learning about her might be of benefit and consolation to a broader audience too,” the professor said.
The Last Months
The archive includes Levy’s 1889 appointment diary, in which increasingly sparse entries record the closing period before her death from inhaling carbon monoxide. A last, poignant entry, written the day before she died, said: “Spent the day alone at home.” But the expert said Levy in many ways had “a vibrant, complete, thrilling existence” too.
“She could be witty at times, which is evident in her writings. She did suffer from a set of three hardships, including facial pain. She was growing increasingly deaf, which results in withdrawal from society and isolation. And she also battled despondency.
“Though she failed to discover happiness, it was always something she insisted on: the freedom to experience bliss, even overjoyed.”
