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Portrait of Amy Levy

Unknown author · Public domain

Amy Levy

British poet, novelist, writer

1861 – 1889aged 27

Amy Levy was among the first Jewish women to study at Cambridge, attending Newnham College, and used her poetry and essays to examine both the position of Jews in Europe and the constraints facing women who wanted independent lives outside marriage. She moved in London's 'New Woman' circles, some of them lesbian, at a moment when both her Jewish identity and her sexuality set her apart from the literary mainstream she was otherwise part of.

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