London Liberties: the Metropolis Through the Eyes of Victorian Writer Amy Levy

What is it about?

This research article examines the literary works of Amy Levy, the late-Victorian author whose novels and poetry repeatedly engage with the urban space of London and, in particular, the female and the Jewish experience of the metropolis. The study explores how Levy portrays women—still ideologically associated with the domestic sphere in the late nineteenth century—as independent agents who move through the city and reflect on their own (im)mobility. At a time when women’s presence in public spaces was frequently perceived as inappropriate, Levy’s texts foreground both the possibilities and the tensions inherent in such movement. Central to the analysis is the double-edged character of urban freedom. Levy’s female figures experience the city as a site of liberation, yet this freedom is shadowed by the threat of social sanction and accusations of “defeminization.” The article also engages with the question of whether Levy’s work can be read as anticipating the emergence of the flâneuse, a female counterpart to the Victorian flâneur, the male observer of metropolitan life. Do her protagonists succeed in claiming the role of urban spectators, or are they ultimately confined to functioning as spectacles within the patriarchal visual order?

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Photo by Martin Hayes on Unsplash

Photo by Martin Hayes on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The article contributes to broader discussions about women’s changing access to urban space in the late-nineteenth century and about the metropolitan experiences of minorities and marginalized groups. By reassessing Levy’s work, it sheds light on how depictions of gender and modernity intersect in literary representations of the city. At the same time, the study invites readers to reflect on continuities between past and present. Women’s experiences of urban environments today are still partly shaped by harassment and feelings of insecurity. Revisiting women writers who challenged the male gaze and sought to articulate a complex female reading of the city enables a deeper understanding of the historical struggle to appropriate urban space as women’s own—and highlights the ongoing relevance of these debates.