SOURCE: "The Romantic Inventions of Vernon Lee," in The Snake Lady and Other Stories, by Vernon Lee, Grove Press, 1954, pp. 6-24.

in the following excerpt from the introduction to Lee's short story collection, Gregory examines thematic and stylistic aspects of Lee's fiction.

It was a clever, bookish, studious child who in 1880 had written Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy, and she was a child born of a mother who outlived, victoriously it seemed, two less spirited, less vigorous husbands; Violet Paget was the daughter of the second union and was born in Boulogne, France in 1856. The household soon moved to Italy and a son by the first marriage, Eugene Lee-Hamilton shared it.

Lee-Hamilton was both the light and shadow of the family. Like the sons of some few other old families of England's northern boundaries, he had been trained to enter the diplomatic services. From the time...