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For over a hundred years, not much has been understood about this Victorian writer, a member of Victorian literature's most unique voices, formerly hailed as a genius by the renowned wit.

Today, the public will be able to familiarize themselves with a writer whose pioneering work explored women’s independence, the Jewish experience, and queer love.

“Seldom nowadays for a complete collection of a 1800s author’s papers to emerge,” stated a senior archivist. “Our goal was to seize this chance to make her archive accessible in the place where she attended university and where she returned to even in the final days of her life.”

A Pioneering Life

Levy was born in 1861 into a middle-class Jewish family in London and enrolled at Newnham College in 1879, rising to become the next Jewish woman among Cambridge’s first generation of female students.

She wrote three poetry collections, three novels – such as Reuben Sachs and The Romance of a Shop – a wealth of essays and a series of articles for the Jewish Chronicle. When she died by suicide in 1889, just 27 years old, she was regarded by her fellow writers as an remarkable ability, with Wilde writing her obituary and lauding the “authenticity, candor, and melancholy” of her work.

A Layered Character

A leading scholar working on a biographical study about Levy commented that she believed the documents would not only transform scholarly research but also be of interest to a wider public.

“I read Amy’s poetry decades ago and they have haunted me ever since,” the researcher said. “Not only was she a skilled and poignant writer, but she was also so complicated. She affirmed her Jewish identity, but she was also an agnostic. She seemed to interact positively with men, but she was a woman who loved women.”

The professor noted that Levy had cultivated a social network at Newnham and also in her adult life, especially through Vernon Lee “who was highly sociable to a wide circle including Wilde. Levy became part of Lee’s circle, in fact she developed feelings for her, a love that regrettably was never returned.

“When Wilde received a brief piece from Levy for his magazine the Woman’s World, he was astonished by the story and called Levy a girl of genius.”

An Enduring Impact

Researchers argue Levy’s work resonates strongly to current debates around feminism, queer writing and Jewish culture and say she predated discourse that would come years after her death.

“She was ahead of her time, which was perhaps one of the reasons she never entirely found her niche,” the expert said. “She grappled with her same-sex attraction and how she fit into a heteronormative society. Matrimony was not an option for her, but neither was having a career like a educator, which she gave up to become a full-time author.

“She has long been interesting to people who study Jewish women and their history. And today, when we have in the wake of the worldwide health crisis so many the younger generation facing depression, nervousness, mental health issues, even suicidality, understanding her might be of interest and solace to a wider public too,” the scholar said.

The Closing Chapter

The archive includes Levy’s 1889 personal diary, in which gradually dwindling entries document the last months before her death from inhaling carbon monoxide. A ultimate, touching entry, written the day before she died, said: “Home by myself the entire day.” But the scholar said Levy in many ways had “a dynamic, fulfilling, stimulating existence” too.

“She could be humorous at times, which is evident in her writings. She did suffer from a triple burden of difficulties, including facial pain. She was losing her hearing progressively, which results in social alienation and loneliness. And she also suffered from melancholia.

“Though she never quite found happiness, it was always something she demanded: the right to be happy, even elated.”