The Enchanted Woods

Written by Vernon Lee

Narrated by Julia Franklin

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 itself more to poetry than non-fiction. As Lee guides us through an enchanted wood, it gives us an insight into the inspiration behind Lee’s supernatural stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Feb 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781399121026

Vernon Lee

Vernon Lee (1856-1935) was the pen name of Violet Paget, a British author of supernatural fiction. Born in France to British expatriate parents, Paget spent most of her life in continental Europe. A committed feminist and pacifist, she joined the Union of Democratic Control during the First World War to express her opposition to British militarism. A lesbian, Paget had relationships with Mary Robinson, Amy Levy, and Clementina Anstruther-Thomson throughout her life. Paget, a dedicated follower of Walter Pater’s Aesthetic movement, lived for many years in Florence, where she gained a reputation as a leading scholar of the Italian Renaissance. In addition to her work in art history, Paget was a leading writer of short fiction featuring supernatural figures and themes. Among her best known works are Hauntings (1890), a collection of four chilling tales, and “Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady,” a story which appeared in an 1895 issue of The Yellow Book, a controversial periodical that featured the works of Aubrey Beardsley, George Gissing, Henry James, and William Butler Yeats. Although Paget was largely forgotten by the mid-twentieth century, feminist scholars have rekindled attention in her pioneering work as a leading proponent of Aestheticism.