Ouida (1839–1908)
Author of A Dog of Flanders
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Although she preferred Marie Louise de la Ramée, her real name was Maria Louise Ramé, and she often went by her pen name: Ouida.
Works by Ouida
Puck: His Vicissitudes, Adventures, Observations, Conclusions, Friendships, and Philosophies (2001) 10 copies
Pipistrello and Other Stories 3 copies
Ruffino 2 copies
Santa Barbara and Other Stories 2 copies
Puck | In Maremma 2 copies
Helianthus: A Novel 2 copies
Tricotrin | In a Winter City | Little Grand and the Marchioness | Our Country Quarters | Trente-et-Un (1889) 2 copies
Muriella; or, Le Selve, 1 copy
Princess Napraxine. Tome 2 1 copy
Two Offenders 1 copy
Moufflou and other stories 1 copy
Don Gesualdo 1 copy
Toxin: A Story of Venice 1 copy
Nello en Patrasj 1 copy
The New Franchise 1 copy
A mad world, a vision 1 copy
The Tower of Taddeo 1 copy
La Strega 1 copy
ふらんだーすのいぬ (せかいの名作ぶんこ (38)) 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- de la Ramée, Maria Louise
de la Ramé, Maria Louise - Other names
- Ouida
- Birthdate
- 1839-01-07
- Date of death
- 1908-01-25
- Burial location
- English Cemetery, Bagni di Lucca, Italy
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- England
UK - Birthplace
- Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, UK
- Place of death
- Viareggio, Italy
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
Florence, Italy - Occupations
- novelist
short story writer - Awards and honors
- Blue Plaque
- Short biography
- Marie Louise de la Ramée was born to a French father and an English mother. Her pen name of "Ouida" (WEE-da) was derived from a childish mispronunciation of the name Louise. Educated in Paris, she settled in London in 1857 and began her literary career by contributing stories to periodicals such as The New Monthly and Bentley's Magazine. After her early success with the popular novels Held in Bondage (1863) and Strathmore (1865), Ouida quickly became the best-selling British writer of witty, romantic novels such as Moths (1880) and Princess Napraxine (1884). In 1874, she went to live in Florence, and many of her books written after that had Italian settings. Despite their overheated plots and ridiculous heroes, her books were popular until the end of the century. She made a lot of money from her writing, but died in poverty.
- Disambiguation notice
- Although she preferred Marie Louise de la Ramée, her real name was Maria Louise Ramé, and she often went by her pen name: Ouida.
Members
Reviews
Recounts tribulations of a young boy and his dog as they endure poverty, hunger, cruelty, and rejection up to their tragic, bittersweet end.
Also includes:
- The Nürnberg Stove
- Moufflou
- The Child of Urbino
- Meleagris Gallopavo
Also includes:
- The Nürnberg Stove
- Moufflou
- The Child of Urbino
- Meleagris Gallopavo
Oh, dear Hirschvogel, how I weep for the loss of you! How I wish I could curl up, like a small hedgehog in your warmth! Yes, Hirschvogel, truly you are the source of all joy and wonder and art in this cold and terrible world! The very soul, yes soul, of craftsmanship never seen before or since! All imitations are a scourge on earthly beauty! At first, you were but a strange story about a boy and his stove, but now, now I understand true passion and true wonder!
(More seriously: I've never really read anything quite like this book. It's not from an historical era I really know anything about, and I read it because I found it at the used book store, and it was so small, and odd, and there was this one line about hedgehogs...
Anyway, it's a weird little thing, an oddity of its time probably, but it amused me and made for an entertaining Sunday afternoon read. Also, I know a lot more about antique stoves now than I did yesterday, so there's that.)
… (more)
(More seriously: I've never really read anything quite like this book. It's not from an historical era I really know anything about, and I read it because I found it at the used book store, and it was so small, and odd, and there was this one line about hedgehogs...
Anyway, it's a weird little thing, an oddity of its time probably, but it amused me and made for an entertaining Sunday afternoon read. Also, I know a lot more about antique stoves now than I did yesterday, so there's that.)
… (more)
"There is...something which the ordinary human mind finds soothing and delightful in this formula of 'the sanctity of human life,' when combined with a corresponding disregard for human and for all other life. The good Christian likes to be raised aloft, in his own eyes, from all those other races which he imagines were given to him for his use and abuse by a gracious Deity. He loves to think that both God and the neighboring policeman are watching over him; and taking care alike of his soul and of his greatcoat, In the enormous vanity of the Christian who believes all the laws of the universe altered for him, or in the equally enormous vanity of the scientist who arrogates to himself the right to dogmatise on the mysteries of temperament, this attitude is not surprising. But in either the philosophic mind; or the poetic temperament, it is so because to the philosopher the difference between the human and the other races cannot appear very great, whilst to the poet the solidarity of all sentient life must always seem unquestionable."
"When I use the term melodrama, I mean by it that which mimics the tragic, but falls short of it; the tragic, imitated but so environed, that it loses dignity and has something of the inflated and grotesque."
"To draw the reader's attention to a conspicuous object, and then to cheat the expectations raised concerning it, is a great fault in art; but it is one of which English and American writers are continually guilty."
Ouida was an uncompromising critic of vulgar art, of avarice, and of bigotry. She was a fierce defender of animal rights, and campaigned her entire life for the humane treatment of animals. This book, first published in 1900, contains essays on a few French and Italian writers, on F. Marion Crawford (born American but spent most of his life in Sorrento), and commentary generally on the destruction of beauty and human character brought about by industrialization.… (more)
"When I use the term melodrama, I mean by it that which mimics the tragic, but falls short of it; the tragic, imitated but so environed, that it loses dignity and has something of the inflated and grotesque."
"To draw the reader's attention to a conspicuous object, and then to cheat the expectations raised concerning it, is a great fault in art; but it is one of which English and American writers are continually guilty."
Ouida was an uncompromising critic of vulgar art, of avarice, and of bigotry. She was a fierce defender of animal rights, and campaigned her entire life for the humane treatment of animals. This book, first published in 1900, contains essays on a few French and Italian writers, on F. Marion Crawford (born American but spent most of his life in Sorrento), and commentary generally on the destruction of beauty and human character brought about by industrialization.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 94
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 1,071
- Popularity
- #24,022
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 20
- ISBNs
- 205
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 2
This book is particularly memorable to me because of the fact that it was my first novel. Though originally written in English, I read it in Japanese. But the language difference didn't hinder me from relishing the book.
Having read the book as a child in elementary school, I learnt how a good time suddenly turns into a nightmare. I was shocked by the fact how ruthlessly cold and altering life could be. Reading the novel made tears pour out of my eyes, but it was not just a complete tragedy. I smiled, cried and felt an array of emotions. I genuinely enjoyed every page.… (more)