The Romance of a Shop

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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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.