Ouida, Strathmore

Catherine Layton (Independent Scholar - Australia)
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Strathmore, or Wrought by his own Hand: A Life Romance

is an important but secondary work in Ouida’s portfolio. It is important in that it controversially exemplifies Victorian popular literary tastes, and as the last work in which Ouida explicitly claimed a masculine voice, while also presaging the female serpent/saint binary in her

romans à clef Puck

(1870),

Friendship

(1878), and

Moths

(1880). All four novels addressed the question, “Why would men of noble character indulge in extra-marital sex?”

Strathmore

is considered a secondary work because it has attracted almost no critical attention in its own right, having been overshadowed by other works by Ouida that raise more complex questions about gender.

Unusually for a single Victorian woman, the half-French Marie Louisa

2720 words

Citation: Layton, Catherine. "Strathmore". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 May 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1837, accessed 02 December 2024.]

1837 Strathmore 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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