THE ROMANCE OF A SHOP

In late 19th-century London, four orphaned sisters go into business.

British author Levy (1861-1889) is a fascinating figure of her time: Jewish and bisexual, she died by suicide at age 27 having already written three novels, three poetry collections, and more. It is haunting that this sweet and lively novel, sparkling with popular culture references that convey the spirit of its time and place, was published just a year before her death. The four sisters and their trials and triumphs cannot help but echo the paradigmatic Marches: Little Women had been a bestseller for decades at the time the Lorimers were invented. The “Jo” character, Gertrude, is also a writer, but when their father dies, leaving the girls in financial distress, she puts her literary efforts aside to open a photography studio with Lucy (Meg), Phyllis (part Amy, part Beth), and their rather untalented older half sister, Fanny (honestly, a case all her own). Along with their mostly successful attempt to achieve financial independence via commercial endeavor and other striking feminist elements—at one point, Gertrude remarks of a certain gentleman that if a woman were discussing “the motions of the heavenly bodies, he would be thinking all the time of the shape of her ankles”—the novel includes several marriage plots and a very Victorian death by consumption. It’s also a vivid look at the cultural life and mores of the urban middle class of the period. The publishers append an interesting postscript, an informal conversation between contemporary writers Ruth Madievsky and Rachel León in which they raise issues such as the identity of the never-named narrator, hints of queer and anti-colonial subtext, and the insight that the four Lorimers opening a photography business is the Victorian equivalent of a “Girls Gone Wild” video.

How is it that Victorian novels never get old? A lovely addition to the canon.