The Little Ottleys (A Virago modern classic)

Literature & Fiction

Leverson, Ada

Classics

DIAL PRESS

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Love's Shadow (Large Print Edition)

Literary

BiblioLife

Love's Shadow

Contemporary

Isis Large Print

Edith and Bruce Ottley live in a very new, very small, very white flat in Knightsbridge. On the surface they are like every other respectable couple in Edwardian London and that is precisely why Edith is beginning to feel a little bored. Excitement comes in the form of the dazzling and glamorous Hyacinth Verney, who doesn't understand why Edith is married to one of the greatest bores in society. But then, Hyacinth doesn't really understand any of the courtships, jealousies and love affairs of their coterie: why the dashing Cecil Reeve insists on being so elusive, why her loyal friend Anne is so stubbornly content with being a spinster, and why she just can't seem to take her mind off love...

Paperback: 532 pagesPublisher: Virago Pr; Virago Modern Classics edition (October 1992)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0860683001ISBN-13: 978-0860683001 Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches Shipping Weight: 1 pounds

The Little Ottleys

Virago Pr

It is a long and golden summer in the Edwardian period. London is abuzz with gentlemen in tall hats and ladies in flowing silk, some with money, and others who want it badly. Love and marriage are the great game, but the adventure is vastly varied, depending on who is playing. Creatures of wit find it their most impressive subject; creatures of love are either pinnacled or torn apart by its demands. 
Felicity, Sylvia and Savile Crofton, aged 25, 20 and 16 respectively, are deep in the melee. Felicity is married to Lord Chetwode, the man of her dreams, and is largely happy, but she is already feeling deeply the falling-off of contact as he pursues horseflesh and antiques across the country in ever-longer stays away. Her younger sister Sylvia is very much in the market, according to her father, who has many ideas of whom she might marry, but particularly favours a Greek millionaire, Mr Ridokanaki. He has no idea that her great love is his penniless secretary, Frank Woodville. Their brother Savile, on holiday from Eton, has not only the spirited attentions of young Dolly Clive to contend with, but also his great passion for an opera singer, whom he loves from afar. 
Somehow, all their problems must be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. A typically confident Savile tries to engineer a solution, but in the end it is love itself which cuts through. 
This mischievously witty tale of love and intrigue, the author¿s first, was published in 1907.\nAda Leverson (nee Beddington) was born in 1862. She married Ernest Leverson at the age of 19, against her parents¿ consent, but the marriage was not a success. She became a contributor to several literary and artistic journals including Black and White, St Stephen¿s Review and, most notably, The Yellow Book in the 1890s. It was at this time, after she published a brilliantly successful sketch parody of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, that Oscar Wilde desired to meet her, and dubbed her The Sphinx. They became the greatest of friends, and she was instrumental in helping him after the disaster of his trial, when many others deserted him. Her six sparklingly witty novels were published between 1907 and 1916. She died in 1933.

The Twelfth Hour

Humor & Satire

Michael Walmer

Ada Leverson's second novel is a delightful and witty tangle of love and attraction at cross-purposes. Edith Ottley and Hyacinth Verney are two young Edwardian women, old schoolfriends, with love trouble on their hands. But it is trouble of a vastly differing nature. Edith is married to Bruce, a youngish Foreign Office clerk. Bruce is an extraordinary man, at least in his own estimation! Constantly upbraiding Edith peevishly about her lack of understanding of him, prey to hypochondria of all kinds, convinced of his own pre-eminence in all he undertakes, he is completely unaware of his family's and indeed the world's barely patient toleration of his foibles. Edith, for all that she finds him impossible, somehow loves him. Hyacinth is in a tricky situation. She is madly in love with a handsome young man-about-town, Cecil Reeve, who is himself fascinated by a glamorous widow, Eugenia Raymond, who enjoys his company but not in that way. When Eugenia agrees to marry none other than Cecil's uncle, Lord Selsey, the horrified Cecil is encouraged to fall back upon the adoration that Hyacinth provides. But Cecil and Eugenia's continuing proximity means that the scene is set for jealousy, misunderstanding and potential disaster, with hilarious results. Ada Leverson wrote three novels featuring Edith and Bruce Ottley, of which this is the first. Her deceptively light and seemingly frivolous style masks here a worldly and stylish investigation into the terms of true love, and the pursuit of love's shadow. This brilliant comedy was first published in 1908.

Letters to the Sphinx contains five main sections: the first is a typically characterful, cantankerous and yet appreciative essay of explanation by Oscar Wilde's literary executor and close friend, Robert Ross. Then follow three major essays of reminiscence by the Sphinx herself, the book's compiler, Ada Leverson, also a dear friend of Wilde: The Importance of Being Oscar gives an iconically witty introduction to how Wilde operated and who he was; The Last First Night gives an elegiac impression of the atmosphere Wilde generated at the zenith of his career; and, finally, Afterwards is a sombrely quiet reflection on Wilde's trials and imprisonment, his troubles, as he called them. Finally it becomes Wilde's turn to speak. In thirty letters, letter-excerpts and telegrams his nature is impressed upon us. From his highest manner which surprisingly lacked stiffness, and in his lowest spirits which were plainly humble, his facility with and mastery of words and epigram are clearly evident, providing a compelling portrait of a personality which was, as Ross claims, 'unique in English literature'. This slender volume was originally published as a limited edition in 1930 and has remained unavailable, except in the rare book market, ever since.

Letters to the Sphinx

Biographies & Memoirs

Wilde, Óscar

Arts & Literature

Valentia and Romer Wyburn have what seems to be a typical Edwardian marriage. Beautiful Valentia has found the handsome, solid and silently devoted Romer a little duller than she expected, and her high spirits have sought out a distant cousin, the elegant but poor artist Harry de Freyne, whose worldly attitude of fun suits her admirably. They are carrying on what they hope is a discreet affair. 
Meanwhile, Valentia's younger sister Daphne is being pursued by a wealthy American friend of Harry, Matthew Van Buren, who worships women in a respectful way that is typically transatlantic. Harry finds his attitude needless, being much more selfish and practical in his aims where the fair sex are concerned. Unfortunately for Van Buren, Daphne is equally unimpressed; her heart is already captivated by Cyril Foster, a 'baby Guardsman' whose lack of wealth is a problem, but who returns Daphne's liking, to the concern of those who want to see her set up comfortably in life. 
Will Valentia and Harry manage to get away with their affair? What will happen if Harry's meagre artistic income finally peters out entirely? Will he marry the illimitably-moneyed Miss Walmer, who, like almost all women, finds his easy charm extraordinarily attractive, but whose healthy love of hockey and florid complexion do not appeal to him in the least? Will the Wyburns' friend, the hugely successful playwright Hereford Vaughan, be able to help Valentia see what she is risking? The affair sizzles and the two grow ever more emboldened, until an overheard conversation brings everything to a head; the limit is reached. Surprisingly, it is quiet Romer Wyburn himself who provides a very unexpected answer. 
This delightfully witty comedy with touches of deeper drama was Ada Leverson's third novel; it was first published in 1911.

The Limit

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Books by Leverson, Ada

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The Little Ottleys (A Virago modern classic)

Love's Shadow (Large Print Edition)

Love's Shadow

Love's Shadow

Love's Shadow

The Little Ottleys

The Twelfth Hour

Love's Shadow

Letters to the Sphinx

The Limit