Best known work

• Under Two Flags, 1867

Other well known work(s)

• Held in Bondage, 1862

Genres

• Fiction - Short Stories
• Fiction - Novels

Nom de plume

Ouida, Marie Louise de la Ramée

Social class

Upper class

Parental background

Her father was a French tailor and gentleman who tutored his daughter personally.

At publication of best known work

• Age: 28
• Marital status: Unmarried
• Number of children: 0

Physical description

Described by Helen Killoran in ODNB "A women whose slight build, large nose, undistinguished features, inauspicious colouring (brown hair, blue eyes), and diminutive stature detracted from her physical appearance, her vanity nevertheless caused her to order expensive dresses too short in the arms and skirt in an attempt to show off her small wrists and feet. The effort merely resulted in unfashionable and grotesque costumes." An excerpt from Hearth and Home magazine confirms this eccentricity, stating that she "is very fond of bright colours, and may frequently be found, even in London on a cold, cheerless, winter afternoon, attired in a pale blue satin dress, far more fitted for evening that for afternoon wear, with blue stockings and satin shoes, and her hair streaming around her in a rather unkempt manner" (Feb 4, 1892).

Did you know?

Ouida was extravagant, eccentric and lived beyond her means. She spent the last few years of her life living in a squalid tenement with stray dogs that she adopted. As Helen Killoran notes "Her dedication to these pets was perhaps the best index of her increasing eccentricity, as she indulged them with luxuries while starving herself; the local people called her ‘Crazy Lady with the Dogs’" (ODNB)

Additional information

Catherine Pope offers a wonderfully engaging article about Ouida and her works. The Latchkey Journal places Ouida in a New Woman context.