Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/484

 LEVI, JUSTIN DE, Daughter of Andre Perotti, of Sasso Ferrato, a descendant of the illustrious house of Levi, was born at Cremona, in the fourteenth century, and was a successful writer of Italian poetry. She was a contemporary and correspondent of Petrarch. She addressed to him a sonnet, to which he replied by another. But, to avoid the appearance of rivalry with this celebrated poet, she determined to write only in French. She married Louis de Puytendre, a French gentleman, living on the borders of the Khine, and was the ancestress of Clotilde de Surville.  LEWALD, FANNY, a Prussian lady who has achieved a European reputation by her talents as a writer of tales and sketches of life and manners. Her delineations, if at times somewhat coarse, are drawn with a firm free hand. Her first novel, entitled "Clementina and Jenny," did not attract much attention; but her second, called "Diogena," to which was attached the nom de plume of Iduna Countess H.-H., as a sort of parody upon the name of the Countess Hahn-Hahn, then in the height of her popularity, achieved an immediate success. Although intended as a satirical sally, in the highly sentimental and romantic style of the novelist of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, yet the story had so much of deep and sustained interest, that it took a firm hold of the public mind, and was read and talked about as one of the most powerful and original works of the day. Being published anonymously, its authorship was a matter of dispute, and this, too, tended to increase its popularity.

In Mademoiselle Lewald's next work, "Italienisches Bilderbuch," she avowed herself the author of "Diogena," and thus set conjecture to rest, and turned the eyes of the admirers of that work upon herself. Under the title of "The Italians at Home," there appeared in 1848, a translation of the above series of graphic and entertaining sketches. In 1849, came out a novel entitled "Prinz Louis Ferdinand," which had a slight foundation on facts in the life of a Prussian Prince. In 1850, after a season spent in England, she published her impressions of its scenery and people. This book was translated in 1854, and won regard for the author by its frank cordial spirit and sound discriminating sense.  LEWIS, ESTELLE ANNA, born in Baltimore, Maryland. Her maiden name was Robinson; her father being a native of Cuba, descended from an English and Spanish parentage. She was married, when quite young, to Mr. S. D. Lewis, a lawyer of Brooklyn, Long Island, where she now resides. She began to write at an early age; but her first poetical effort that attracted much attention, was "The Ruins of Palenque," which appeared in "The New World." In 1844, she published a volume of poems, entitled "Records of the Heart," which was very favourably received. In 1846, there appeared in "The Democratic Review," a poem in three cantos, by Mrs. Lewis, entitled "The Broken Heart;" this, like her former poems, was much admired. In 1848, she published "The Child of the Sea, and other Poems," which, by some critics, has been con-