Ouida (pen name of Maria Louise Ramé, 1839–1908) was an English novelist, born in Bury St Edmunds to a French father and English mother. She adopted "Ouida" from her own childhood mispronunciation of "Louisa." She rose to fame in the 1860s–70s with sensational, romantic novels depicting aristocratic and military life — Held in Bondage (1863), Under Two Flags (1867), and Moths (1880) among the best known. Her prose was ornate and melodramatic, often mocked by critics but hugely popular with readers. She is best remembered today for A Dog of Flanders (1872), a children's tale set in Antwerp that remains widely read, especially in Japan and Korea, where it has been repeatedly adapted for animation and television. Ouida lived extravagantly — she kept a salon in London, then relocated to Italy (Florence, later Lucca), spending lavishly on entertaining, fashion, and a menagerie of dogs. Her fortunes collapsed as literary tastes shifted and her spending outpaced her income. She died in poverty near Viareggio, Italy, in 1908, though a Civil List pension arranged shortly before her death eased her final months. Her work is now viewed as a bridge between Victorian sensation fiction and early aestheticism, notable for its florid style, animal-rights sympathies, and unconventional, often defiant heroines.
6 works on Textopian