The Romance of a Shop

by Amy Levy

Overview

The Romance of a Shop (1888) is a novel by Amy Levy. Published the year before her tragic death, The Romance of a Shop is the debut novel of a pioneering writer and feminist whose poetry and prose explores the concept of the New Woman while illuminating the realities of Jewish life in nineteenth century London. “The air of desolation which hung about the house had communicated itself in some vague manner to the garden, where the trees were bright with blossom, or misty with the tender green of the young leaves. Perhaps the effect of sadness was produced, or at least heightened, by the pathetic figure that paced slowly up and down the gravel path immediately before the house; the figure of a young woman, slight, not tall, bare-headed, and clothed in deep mourning.” Following the unexpected death of their father, sisters Fanny, Gertrude, Lucy, and Phyllis are left with little inheritance and even less hope for the future. On the brink of despair, they join together to launch a photography business, each contributing to the best of their abilities in order to survive. As Lucy begins an apprenticeship with a local photographer, her sisters purchase and prepare their own studio for her return. Despite their efforts, they struggle to convince customers that a shop owned by women can demand the same prices as those run by men. Through perseverance and luck, however, the Lorimers find success as funeral photographers and through their connection to a prominent artist. As romance, illness, and war interrupt their plans, the sisters find solace in their mutual resolve to not only survive, but provide and care for one another. This edition Amy Levy’s The Romance of a Shop is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781900355759
Publisher:	Germinal Productions/Black Apollo
Publication date:	01/30/2012
Series:	Victorian
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

Amy Levy (1861-1889) was a British poet and novelist. Born in Clapham, London to a Jewish family, she was the second oldest of seven children. Levy developed a passion for literature in her youth, writing a critique of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh and publishing her first poem by the age of fourteen. After excelling at Brighton and Hove High School, Levy became the first Jewish student at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied for several years without completing her degree. Around this time, she befriended such feminist intellectuals as Clementina Black, Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, Eleanor Marx, and Olive Schreiner. As a so-called “New Woman” and lesbian, much of Levy’s literary work explores the concerns of nineteenth century feminism. Levy was a romantic partner of Violet Paget, a British storyteller and scholar of Aestheticism who wrote using the pseudonym Vernon Lee. Her first novel, The Romance of a Shop (1888), is powerful story of sisterhood and perseverance in the face of poverty and marginalization. Levy is also known for such poetry collections as A Minor Poet and Other Verse (1884) and A London Plane-Tree and Other Verse (1889). At the age of 27, after a lifetime of depression exacerbated by relationship trouble and her increasing deafness, Levy committed suicide at her parents’ home in Endsleigh Gardens.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Amy Levy: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text

The Romance of a Shop

Appendix A: Contemporary Reviews of The Romance of a Shop

1. From “The Newest Books,” British Weekly (26 October 1888)
2. “The Romance of a Shop,” The Jewish Chronicle (2 November 1888)
3. “The Romance of a Shop,” The Spectator (3 November 1888)
4. From George Saintsbury, “New Novels,” The Academy (10 November 1888)
5. From H.C. Brewer, “New Novels,” The Graphic (24 November 1888)
6. Oscar Wilde, “Amy Levy,” The Woman’s World (1890)

Appendix B: Other Writing by Levy

1. “The Poetry of Christina Rossetti,” The Woman’s World (February 1888)
2. “Women and Club Life,” The Woman’s World (June 1888)
3. “Readers at the British Museum,” Atalanta (April 1889)
4. “Eldorado at Islington,” The Woman’s World (1889)
5. Poetry

Appendix C: Literary Contexts

1. From John Ruskin, “Fiction—Fair and Foul,” The Nineteenth Century (October 1881)
2. From Oscar Wilde, “The Decay of Lying,” The Nineteenth Century (January 1889)
3. A. Mary F. Robinson, “Will,” Women’s Voices (1887)
4. Michael Field, “The Moon Rose Full,” Long Ago (1889)
5. Dollie Radford, “From Our Emancipated Aunt in Town,” Songs and Other Verses (1895)

Appendix D: The Woman Question

1. From Grant Allen, “The Girl of the Future,” The Universal Review (1890)
2. From Clementina Black, “The Organization of Working Women,” The Fortnightly Review (November 1889)

Appendix E: Victorian Photography

1. From [Lady Elizabeth Eastlake], “Photography,” Quarterly Review (April 1857)
2. Levy at Newnham College: Norwich House (1880)

Appendix F: Map of Levy’s London from Bacon’s New Map of London (1885)

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

It is an unexpected pleasure to have Amy Levy’s fascinating 1888 novel, The Romance of a Shop, in a well-annotated modern edition. Levy, an Anglo-Jewish poet and novelist who was educated at Newnham College and frequented the London circles of Eleanor Marx and Olive Schreiner, has been the subject of increasing interest over the last ten years. Levy’s novel chronicles the romance of work and the trials of independent urban life for the ‘new woman’; Susan David Bernstein gives us a splendid edition, with appendices that include Levy’s essays and poems, reviews, and other invaluable contemporary materials.” — Deborah Nord, Princeton University

From the Publisher

"It is an unexpected pleasure to have Amy Levy's fascinating 1888 novel, The Romance of a Shop, in a well-annotated modern edition. Levy, an Anglo-Jewish poet and novelist who was educated at Newnham College and frequented the London circles of Eleanor Marx and Olive Schreiner, has been the subject of increasing interest over the last ten years. Levy's novel chronicles the romance of work and the trials of independent urban life for the 'new woman'; Susan David Bernstein gives us a splendid edition, with appendices that include Levy's essays and poems, reviews, and other invaluable contemporary materials."

Deborah Nord Princeton University