Vernon Lee

Vernon Lee, the pseudonym of Violet Paget, was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, on 14 October 1856, to British expatriate parents. She was the half-sister of Eugene Jacob Lee-Hamilton, from whose surname she derived her pseudonym. Though she wrote for an English audience and visited London, she spent most of her life in continental Europe, particularly Italy. Her longest residence was at Villa Il Palmerino near Florence, from 1889 until her death in 1935. She was an engaged feminist and adopted pacifist views during World War I. Scholars speculate she was a lesbian, with intense relationships with Mary Robinson, Clementina Anstruther-Thomson, and Amy Levy. Lee was an authority on the Italian Renaissance, like Walter Pater and John Addington Symonds. Her writing explored supernatural themes, aesthetics, and the psychological effects of places. She was instrumental in introducing the concept of 'empathy' into aesthetic studies in the English-speaking world. Her opposition to the Great War and her work 'Satan the Waster' led to ostracization but a feminist rediscovery in the 1990s.