SOURCE: An introduction to Supernatural Tales: Excursions into Fantasy, by Vernon Lee, Peter Owen Limited, 1987, pp. 7-18.

In the following essay, Willis explores the defining characteristics of Lee's short fiction.

Robert Browning's tribute to Vernon Lee which is quoted on the jacket of [Supernatural Tales: Excursions into Fantasy] was written in the last year of his life, 1889, before these stories of hers were published. Browning knew her only as the author of her first books on Italian music, painting and sculpture, which made her name in London literary circles in the '80s. When Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy was published in 1880 the youth of the author astonished its readers. It seemed an amazing book for a girl of twenty-four to have written. Few, if any, were in a position to criticise the learning displayed in it, for it was a pioneer work, a piece of...