Amy Levy Critical Essays

"This is a collection that will vastly enhance our understanding of Victorian culture, the nuances of Anglo-Jewish identity, the struggles of Victorian feminism, and the singular achievement of a writer whose complexity is finally coming into focus." "This splendid collection of essays will contribute to the ongoing reassessment of Amy Levy as a complex and challenging writer.... (A) rich and complex portrait of a writer who ... might just be representative rather than marginal, and who certainly complicated her own meditation on what it means to be a minor writer." (Victorian Studies) "Thoughtful in selection and rigorous in scholarship, this volume introduces new readers to Levy's life and works, refines and expands on the major themes of extant criticism, and considers entirely new ways of analyzing Levy's work.... Amy Levy: Critical Essays is a powerful argument for the value of Amy Levy to our understanding of late Victorian literature." (Nineteenth Century Gender Studies) "Collectively, these essays demonstrate that Levy was fully engaged in dominant discourses around politics, feminism, aesthetics and Jewish identity of her day. For undergraduates and advanced scholars of Levy's work and historical moment, therefore, this volume will prove an invaluable resource." (New Books on Literature 19) "Eschewing tragic readings of Levy's life-she committed suicide at 28-these uniformly strong essays locate Levy in such contexts as late-Victorian feminism, discourses of female professionalism, and evengelicalism. The essays cover the full range of Levy's work.... Highly recommended." (Choice) "A great strength of this volume, and the reason why it deserves to find an audience beyond scholars who specialize in Levy's work, is the care the contributors take to bring the broader historical context into their discussion." (Shofar Book Reviews)

Naomi Hetherington teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Nadia Valman is a senior lecturer in English at Queen Mary, University of London.