The novels of Lucy Lane Clifford, who published almost exclusively under the name "Mrs. W. K. Clifford," had an avid contemporary following, both in Britain and the United States. A respected member of the late-Victorian London literary establishment, she has received little attention over the years, and she is generally only remembered in connection with her philosopher husband or for her friendships with writers such as George Eliot and Henry James.

Sophia Lucy Lane was born in 1853 in Barbados, West Indies; she was the daughter of John Lane, a planter and colonial administrator, whose father, Brandford Lane, had been speaker of the House of Assembly. She grew up under the care of her maternal grandmother, who lived in the countryside around Eltham, England, and during her childhood she began to write stories. While an art student in London she met William Kingdon Clifford, the Cambridge mathematician and philosopher...