Ada Leverson (1862–1933)
Author of The Little Ottleys
About the Author
Series
Works by Ada Leverson
Associated Works
Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siècle (1993) — Contributor — 205 copies, 2 reviews
Femmes de Siècle: Stories from the 90s - Women Writing at the End of Two Centuries (1992) — Contributor — 18 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Beddington, Ada (birth name)
The Sphinx - Birthdate
- 1862-10-10
- Date of death
- 1933-08-30
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- novelist
- Relationships
- Hudson, Stephen (brother-in-law)
Wyndham, Francis (grandson)
Wyndham, Violet (daughter) - Short biography
- Ada Leverson, born Ada Esther Beddington, was the eldest of nine children. .Her mother was a pianist and friend of well-known musicians such as Paderewski and Puccini. In 1881, Ada married Ernest Leverson, a wealthy diamond merchant 12 years her senior, and the couple had two children. However, the marriage was unhappy and ended in separation; it also provided material for many of her novels. Ada began her literary career by contributing witty sketches, parodies, and stories to newspapers and magazines. After her husband's death in 1922, she sold her London house and spent part of each year in Florence.
Her wide circle of friends included the three Sitwell siblings, composer William Walton, Harold Acton, and other members of the British colony in Florence, as well as Somerset Maugham and T. S. Eliot. She remained a devoted friend of Oscar Wilde through his criminal trials, imprisonment, and exile; Wilde’s fond nickname for her was "The Sphinx." Ada would come to be considered the muse of the aesthetic movement of the 1890s, and her own works provide valuable insights into the English society of her day. - Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
Florence, Italy - Place of death
- Florence, Italy
- Associated Place (for map)
- London, England, UK
Members
Reviews
All three novels contained in The Ottleys are portraits of marriage or deep friendships. The three novels, published four years apart follow the relationship of Edith and Bruce Ottley. In Love's Shadow Edith acts as a punching bag for her husband's criticism. She takes the blame for things she did not do. She is often ridiculed for not being smart. Occasionally, Edith with participate in verbal sparing with her husband - only her jabs fall short of making any lasting impact of Bruce. show more Confessional: I found Bruce Ottley to be a detestable creature. He is even worse when his hypochondria acts up. There are other romances in Love's Shadow that are just as ridiculous as Edith and Bruce. Edith's friend Hyacinth has eyes for Cecil, who in turn desires the older, widowed Eugenia.
Levenson is a master at delivering sly humor. The subject of aging, "all men are good for, at a certain age, is giving advice" (p 89). Levenson's insults are pretty clever, too. "You're full of faults, and delightfully ignorant and commonplace" (p 147). show less
Levenson is a master at delivering sly humor. The subject of aging, "all men are good for, at a certain age, is giving advice" (p 89). Levenson's insults are pretty clever, too. "You're full of faults, and delightfully ignorant and commonplace" (p 147). show less
My hardcore fans (yes, both of you!) may remember that two years ago I was unable to review Birds of Paradise because I mislaid it and therefore couldn’t read it. (It turned up in the end, in a knapsack I never use.) I was eager to rectify my mistake by reading Ada Leverson’s 1916 offering, especially as this was her last novel.
Love at Second Sight is the last book in the Little Ottleys trilogy. Although I didn’t read the first two, it was easy to see what must have happened in show more them—in book one, the main character Edith must have married her husband, and then in the second one both Edith and her husband fall in love with other people but remain together thanks to Edith’s bloody-minded loyalty.
As this novel opens, Edith’s family has a guest in the house, and it’s unclear who she is, why she’s come to stay, and how long she plans to be there. But Madame Frabelle exercises a strange fascination over all of them. This book is terribly amusing and I’m not even going to tell you what happens, other than it’s a scream. The protagonist is thinking funny things about other people all the time but since she’s kind and fairly quiet, people don’t realize that she’s amusing and smart. The husband seems like the most annoying person on earth, and he must be drawn from life because how could you invent a person that annoying?
This is one of the rare books that has a contemporary setting during World War I. The husband was not called up because of a “neurotic heart,” which seems to be like PTSD. Edith’s love interest from the previous book returns home from the war, wounded. This novel’s realism allowed me to see all kinds of period details. For example, when the characters need to look up train timetables, they use things called the ABC and Bradshaw, which must be the apps they had on their phones at that time. Edith also had an Italian composer best friend who I thought might be based on Puccini since (according to Wikipedia) he and Ada Leverson were great pals.
I really was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen, and guess what?Everyone gets a happy ending!
Ada Leverson’s Wikipedia page says cattily that after this novel, she worked on ever-smaller projects. Just like me! show less
Love at Second Sight is the last book in the Little Ottleys trilogy. Although I didn’t read the first two, it was easy to see what must have happened in show more them—in book one, the main character Edith must have married her husband, and then in the second one both Edith and her husband fall in love with other people but remain together thanks to Edith’s bloody-minded loyalty.
As this novel opens, Edith’s family has a guest in the house, and it’s unclear who she is, why she’s come to stay, and how long she plans to be there. But Madame Frabelle exercises a strange fascination over all of them. This book is terribly amusing and I’m not even going to tell you what happens, other than it’s a scream. The protagonist is thinking funny things about other people all the time but since she’s kind and fairly quiet, people don’t realize that she’s amusing and smart. The husband seems like the most annoying person on earth, and he must be drawn from life because how could you invent a person that annoying?
This is one of the rare books that has a contemporary setting during World War I. The husband was not called up because of a “neurotic heart,” which seems to be like PTSD. Edith’s love interest from the previous book returns home from the war, wounded. This novel’s realism allowed me to see all kinds of period details. For example, when the characters need to look up train timetables, they use things called the ABC and Bradshaw, which must be the apps they had on their phones at that time. Edith also had an Italian composer best friend who I thought might be based on Puccini since (according to Wikipedia) he and Ada Leverson were great pals.
I really was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen, and guess what?
Ada Leverson’s Wikipedia page says cattily that after this novel, she worked on ever-smaller projects. Just like me! show less
Ada Leverson was an author known for her wit and friendship with Oscar Wilde. He stayed with the Leversons when he went on trial for his homosexuality, as no hotel would accept him, and Ada was there to greet him when he was released from prison. Love's Shadow is her first novel, and the first in a trilogy known collectively as The Little Ottleys.
Edith Ottley is married to the pompous and boring Bruce. His self-absorption and self-importance make for some very funny scenes, with more than a show more touch of social parody. Edith's friend, Hyacinth, is in love with the handsome Cecil, who is infatuated with the older, widowed Eugenia. Hyacinth's guardian has more than a passing affection for his ward, as does her ladies companion, Anne. Filled with witty dialogue and tongue-in-cheek humor, this was a light, but not frivolous, romp. My favorite character was Anne, with her unrequited, unseen love for Hyacinth and her no nonsense manner. show less
Edith Ottley is married to the pompous and boring Bruce. His self-absorption and self-importance make for some very funny scenes, with more than a show more touch of social parody. Edith's friend, Hyacinth, is in love with the handsome Cecil, who is infatuated with the older, widowed Eugenia. Hyacinth's guardian has more than a passing affection for his ward, as does her ladies companion, Anne. Filled with witty dialogue and tongue-in-cheek humor, this was a light, but not frivolous, romp. My favorite character was Anne, with her unrequited, unseen love for Hyacinth and her no nonsense manner. show less
I went through several changes of opinion as I read, beginning & ending by being charmed. (The initial charm was borrowed: seeing that it's in a series with Rachel Feguson's "The Brontes Went to Woolworths" was a minor thrill.) Leverson's breezy, comic irony begins as a delight. Soon, though, for me, the repartee becomes tiresome: the characters talk as if they had been left out of bad, early drafts of Oscar Wilde plays. If I hadn't rec'd the book as an Early Reviewer, I would have stopped show more 40 or so pages in.
I'm glad I persevered. Either the bad Wilde talk stops or I stopped noticing it, but the atmosphere of Wilde remains (the back cover quotes him in praise of Leverson). The gender play is right out of "The Importance of Being Earnest." Confirmed bachelors and single women in mackintoshes have their troubles but remain independent. Heterosexually married characters, on the other hand, live in several kinds of suffocating nightmare. I smiled even as I read about the most nigtmarish pairing, the Ottleys (titular characters in a later Leverson book). I'm torn between my furor on behalf of Mrs. Ottley & delight with Leverson for creating her & Mr. Ottley.
All is done with a gentle humor. A partner in a marriage of convenience (they seem to be acting as each other's beards) describes her husband as having "the disposition of an angel and the voice of a gazelle." She amends this, realizing gazelles aren't known for their song. But the word "gazelle" is lovely & the sentiment sounds as if it should be meaningful. This space between appearance & actuality is representative of much of the book. All is done decorously, all seems correct, even if characters are discussing financial distress, or in love with those they can never marry.
Stylistically the book itself is a sort of singing gazelle, covering issues of real pain and readerly discomfort with its veneer of light wit: Mrs. Ottley is treated horribly by her husband; Anne, in love with a woman, is exiled from England; Hyacinth, the book's main character, is utterly trivial. All of this detracted from my pleasure. But then I put on my English professor hat: Someone could have quite a bit of fun writing an essay on this book's parodic repetition (in Judith Butler's sense) of hetero norms. Considering it alongside Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" could be interesting, too. I'd love to hear about how this book is read in an upper level or graduate class. And so, tho I end as I began, charmed, it's more with the book as a literary artifact than as a great read.. show less
I'm glad I persevered. Either the bad Wilde talk stops or I stopped noticing it, but the atmosphere of Wilde remains (the back cover quotes him in praise of Leverson). The gender play is right out of "The Importance of Being Earnest." Confirmed bachelors and single women in mackintoshes have their troubles but remain independent. Heterosexually married characters, on the other hand, live in several kinds of suffocating nightmare. I smiled even as I read about the most nigtmarish pairing, the Ottleys (titular characters in a later Leverson book). I'm torn between my furor on behalf of Mrs. Ottley & delight with Leverson for creating her & Mr. Ottley.
All is done with a gentle humor. A partner in a marriage of convenience (they seem to be acting as each other's beards) describes her husband as having "the disposition of an angel and the voice of a gazelle." She amends this, realizing gazelles aren't known for their song. But the word "gazelle" is lovely & the sentiment sounds as if it should be meaningful. This space between appearance & actuality is representative of much of the book. All is done decorously, all seems correct, even if characters are discussing financial distress, or in love with those they can never marry.
Stylistically the book itself is a sort of singing gazelle, covering issues of real pain and readerly discomfort with its veneer of light wit: Mrs. Ottley is treated horribly by her husband; Anne, in love with a woman, is exiled from England; Hyacinth, the book's main character, is utterly trivial. All of this detracted from my pleasure. But then I put on my English professor hat: Someone could have quite a bit of fun writing an essay on this book's parodic repetition (in Judith Butler's sense) of hetero norms. Considering it alongside Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" could be interesting, too. I'd love to hear about how this book is read in an upper level or graduate class. And so, tho I end as I began, charmed, it's more with the book as a literary artifact than as a great read.. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lists
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