The New Student's Reference Work/Ramée, Louise de la

Ramée, Louise de la (known by her pen-name of Ouida), English novelist of French extraction, was born at Bury St. Edmunds in 1840. Little is known of her early life or education beyond the fact that she was brought up in London, where she began in the sixties to write for Colburn's New Monthly and other magazines. Her pen-name was, it is said, suggested by the efforts of a child-sister to call her Louise. Her first novel, Granville de Vigne, appeared in book form in 1863, and she was a most industrious and prolific writer. Her novels dealt with all phases of European society, some of her themes being treated with cleverness and skill, often with cynical railing at the weaknesses of her characters. Her early stories were extravagantly romantic; but she shed her passionate exuberance and became stronger as a writer, though inclined to the reckless and tragic. She for 30 years made her home in Italy, where the scenes of many of her novels are laid. Her best-known stories are Under Two Flags, Othmar, Moths and Wanda. She died on Jan. 25, 1908.