Best known work

• Hauntings, 1890

Other well known work(s)

• Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy, 1880
• Miss Brown, 1884
• Satan the Waster, 1920

Genres

• Biography / Autobiography
• Fiction - Novels
• Fiction - Short Stories
• Politics / Philosophy / Essays
• Travel Writing / Translation

Nom de plume

Violet Paget

Social class

Upper class

Parental background

Her father was a soldier and a tutor, her mother was the daughter of a wealthy businessman and landowner. Lee was largely home and tutor educated, travelling extensively throughout Europe.

At publication of best known work

• Age: 33
• Marital status: Unmarried
• Number of children: 0

Physical description

Lee sat for a portrait by her friend John Singer Sargent in 1881 which depicts her in severe black dress with small white collar, with short hair somewhat dishevelled, thin faced and wearing round spectacles, looking as if about to speak at any moment. Lee is not conventionally beautiful as Vineta Colby notes, Lee had an "adolescent self-consciousness of her plain if not positively ugly face" (Vernon Lee: A Literary Biography). She was well-known for wearing masculine dress.

Did you know?

Lee was renowned for her work on art history and aestheticism but also wrote children's literature, fiction, short stories and essays on wide ranging subjects. Titles include "My Bicycle and I"; "Against Talking" and "Acquaintance with Birds".

Additional information

An introductory paragraph about Lee and a selection of her essays can be found. The Latchkey Journal places Lee in the New Woman context and explores her life in the period.