Abstract
Vernon Lee was proficient in four languages, yet little attention has been given to her non-English literary networks and publications. This article draws on peritexts, periodical reviews, and correspondence to address that gap and to connect Lee's multilingualism with her more studied queerness. Focusing on key moments in Lee's early career, I argue that Lee's pivots between national literary fields were both materially and affectively motivated, not simply disinterested strategies to maximize cultural capital. I present "queer relations" as one rubric for exploring Lee's crisscrossed emotional entanglements with lovers, female mediators, and languages themselves. These reconstructions open up new readings of Lee's fictions, showcase the payoffs of combining queer theory with translation history, and suggest the need for more multilingual work in Victorian studies.
Published Version
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