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The Poetry of Amy Levy (Audiobook)
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Amy Levy was born in London, England in 1861, the second of seven in a fairly wealthy Anglo-Jewish family. The children read and participated in secular literary activities and became firmly integrated into Victorian life.

Her education was at Brighton High School, Brighton, before studies at Newnham College, Cambridge; she was the first Jewish student when she arrived in 1879, but left after four terms.

Amy’s writing career began early; her poem ‘Ida Grey’ appeared when she was only fourteen. Her acclaimed short stories ‘Cohen of Trinity’ and ‘Wise in Their Generation,’ were published by Oscar Wilde in his magazine ‘Women's World’.

Her poetic writings reveal feminist concerns; ‘Xantippe and Other Verses’, from 1881 includes a poem in the voice of Socrates's wife. ‘A Minor Poet and Other Verse’ from 1884 comprises of dramatic monologues and lyric poems.

In 1886, Amy began a series of essays on Jewish culture and literature for the Jewish Chronicle, including ‘The Ghetto at Florence’, ‘The Jew in Fiction’, ‘Jewish Humour’ and ‘Jewish Children’.

That same year while travelling in Florence she met the writer Vernon Lee. It is generally assumed they fell in love and this inspired the poem ‘To Vernon Lee’.

Her first novel ‘Romance of a Shop’, written in 1888 is based on four sisters who experience the pleasures and hardships of running a London business during the 1880s. This was followed by Reuben Sachs (also 1888) and concerned with Jewish identity and mores in the England of her time and was somewhat controversial.

Her final book of poems, ‘A London Plane-Tree’ from 1889, shows the beginnings of the influence of French symbolism.

Despite many friendships and an active life, Amy suffered for many years with serious depressions and this, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide on September 10th, 1889. She was 27.

 

 In this compilation - 

01 - The Poetry of Amy Levy - An Introduction
02 - Xantippe (A Fragment) by Amy Levy
03 - At Dawn by Amy Levy
04 - In the Night by Amy Levy
05 - Sonnet by Amy Levy
06 - A March Day in London by Amy Levy
07 - The First Extra - A Waltz Song by Amy Levy
08 - A Game of Lawn Tennis by Amy Levy
09 - On the Wye in May by Amy Levy
10 - A June Tide Echo by Amy Levy
11 - A London Plane Tree by Amy Levy
12 - London In July by Amy Levy
13 - In the Black Forest by Amy Levy
14 - On the Threhold by Amy Levy
15 - The Dream by Amy Levy
16 - In September by Amy Levy
17 - A Dirge by Amy Levy
18 - In a Minor Key (An Echo From a Larger Lyre) by Amy Levy
19 - The Old House by Amy Levy
20 - Out of Town by Amy Levy
21 - In the Mile End Road by Amy Levy
22 - Ballade of a Special Edition by Amy Levy
23 - Ballade of An Omnibus by Amy Levy
24 - A Reminisence by Amy Levy
25 - To Lallie (Outside the British Museum) by Amy Levy
26 - Oh, Is it Love by Amy Levy
27 - Philosophy by Amy Levy
28 - Contradictions by Amy Levy
29 - To Sylvia by Amy Levy
30 - A Prayer by Amy Levy
31 - The Lost Friend by Amy Levy
32 - To A Dead Poet by Amy Levy
33 - London Poets by Amy Levy
34 - The Old Poet by Amy Levy
35 - The Sick Man and the Nightingale by Amy Levy
36 - Epitaph (On a Commonplace Person Who Died in Bed) by Amy Levy
37 - Run to Death by Amy Levy
38 - A Cross Road Epitaph by Amy Levy
39 - Twilight by Amy Levy
40 - The Two Terrors by Amy Levy
41 - Last Words by Amy Levy
42 - The Promise of Sleep by Amy Levy
43 - A Farewell by Amy Levy
44 - A Minor Poet by Amy Levy