Vernon Lee

A Phantom Lover is a supernatural novella by Vernon Lee (pseudonym of Violet Paget) first published in 1886. Set in a Kentish manor house, the story concerns a portrait painter commissioned by a squire, William Oke, to produce portraits of him and his...

Vernon Lee was born Violet Paget on 4th October 1856 in Boulogne, France to intellectual expatriate British parents.In common with several other very talented literary women of the day she felt it necessary to publish under a masculine pseudonym in...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. ‘A Wicked Voice’ reuses the theme of music from beyond the grave from Vernon Lee’s first ghost story ‘Winthrop’s Adventure’. Here,...

Vernon Lee was born Violet Paget on 4th October 1856 in Boulogne, France to intellectual expatriate British parents.In common with several other very talented literary women of the day she felt it necessary to publish under a masculine pseudonym in...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. Written in diary entries from a Polish scholar, this short story features a mysterious femme fatale Medea who is responsible for...

Vernon Lee was born Violet Paget on 4th October 1856 in Boulogne, France to intellectual expatriate British parents.In common with several other very talented literary women of the day she felt it necessary to publish under a masculine pseudonym in...

"Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of Violet Paget (1856 - 1935), a British writer most famous for her supernatural short stories. She was a leading figure in the aesthetic movement.""Marsyas in Flanders"" is a strange tale of an ancient carving of the...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. When a broken effigy of Christ washes up on a beach in Flanders, it is displayed in the local church. Strange miracles start...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. Written in 1905, this is Vernon Lee’s final genuinely weird tale, and it tells the 18th century legend of Sister Benvenuta, a nun...

A short essay from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. The majority of Vernon Lee’s work was essays and studies on art and history but this little-known essay’s sense of places lends...

A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories.Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. Inspired by a sketch of a poor woman driven to madness by artist Cecchino, wealthy Madame Krasinska attends a ball in fancy dress...

Vernon Lee was born Violet Paget on 4th October 1856 in Boulogne, France to intellectual expatriate British parents.In common with several other very talented literary women of the day she felt it necessary to publish under a masculine pseudonym in...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. Written in 1881, ‘Winthrop’s Adventure’ is Vernon Lee’s first ghost story. Set in Florence, the story regales the story of young...