Vernon Lee, Belcaro, Being Essays on Sundry Aesthetical Questions

Dominique Gracia (University of Exeter)
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Published in 1881, Vernon Lee’s

Belcaro: Being Essays on Sundry Aesthetical Questions 

continued her engagement with aesthetic questions through the essay form. Dedicated to poet A. Mary F. Robinson and written early in their passionate (likely lesbian) friendship, Lee describes the collection as a “scholar’s copy book” (5). Accordingly, Lee seeks not to set out “a system” of “art-philosophy” (8) but commits to the view that “the complete and systematic is worthless and even dangerous, for it is false; the irrelevant, the contradictory, is precious, because it is true to our better part” (225).

The form of Belcaro echoes Lee’s commitment to the fragmentary (several of the 10 essays had previously been published individually in periodicals) and contradictory (the

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Citation: Gracia, Dominique. "Belcaro, Being Essays on Sundry Aesthetical Questions". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 June 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33566, accessed 28 March 2024.]

33566 Belcaro, Being Essays on Sundry Aesthetical Questions 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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