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For more than a century, very little has been known about the author, one of Victorian literature's most distinctive voices, who was once celebrated as a prodigy by Oscar Wilde.

Today, the public will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a author whose innovative work explored the emancipation of women, Jewish heritage, and homosexual longing.

“It’s rare nowadays for a complete collection of a 1800s author’s papers to be discovered,” remarked a chief librarian. “We were determined to take the opportunity to make her archive open in the place where she studied and where she returned to even in the final days of her life.”

A Pioneering Life

The author was born in 1861 into a Jewish middle-class family in London and enrolled at Newnham College in 1879, establishing herself as the second Jewish woman among Cambridge’s initial cohort of women scholars.

She authored three books of verse, three novels – featuring Reuben Sachs and The Romance of a Shop – a wealth of essays and a set of pieces for the Jewish Chronicle. When she took her own life in 1889, aged 27, she was acknowledged by her contemporaries as an exceptional talent, with Oscar Wilde penning her eulogy and commending the “honesty, candor, and sadness” of her work.

A Multifaceted Persona

A noted academic working on a book project about Levy commented that she was convinced the archival materials would not only transform literary criticism but also be of appeal to a general readership.

“I read Amy’s poetry decades ago and they have haunted me ever since,” the scholar said. “Not only was she a skilled and poignant writer, but she was also so multifaceted. She asserted her Jewish roots, but she was also an non-believer. She seemed to get along very well with men, but she was a queer woman.”

The scholar noted that Levy had established a social network at Newnham and also in her adult life, especially through Vernon Lee “who was well connected to everybody including Wilde. Levy entered Lee’s circle, in fact she became enamored with her, a love that regrettably was never returned.

“When Wilde received a one-page manuscript from Levy for his magazine the Woman’s World, he was bowled over by the story and called Levy a young woman of brilliance.”

An Enduring Impact

Researchers argue Levy’s work speaks directly to modern discussions around gender equality, homosexual narratives and Jewish identity and say she predated discourse that would come well after her death.

“She was forward-thinking, which was possibly one of the reasons she struggled to find her role,” the researcher said. “She grappled with her homosexuality and how she existed within a heteronormative society. Marriage was not an option for her, but neither was having a profession like a instructor, which she gave up to become a writer full-time.

“She has long been interesting to people who study women of Jewish heritage and their history. And today, when we have in the wake of the worldwide health crisis so many youth struggling with melancholy, nervousness, mental health issues, even suicidal thoughts, studying her life might be of value and comfort to a wider public too,” the expert said.

The Final Year

The archive includes Levy’s 1889 personal diary, in which gradually dwindling entries trace the closing period before her death from carbon monoxide poisoning. A ultimate, touching entry, written the day before she died, said: “Alone at home all day.” But the scholar said Levy in many ways had “a dynamic, fulfilling, stimulating existence” too.

“She could be amusing at times, which is evident in her writings. She did experience a triple burden of difficulties, including neuralgia. She was losing her hearing progressively, which leads to isolation from others and seclusion. And she also struggled with depression.

“Though she never quite found happiness, it was always something she insisted on: the entitlement to joy, even ecstatic.”