Oscar Wilde wrote of this novel, “Its directness, its uncompromising truths, its depth of feeling, and above all, its absence of any single superfluous word, make Reuben Sachs, in some sort, a classic.” Reuben Sachs, the story of an extended Anglo-Jewish family in London, focuses on the relationship between two cousins, Reuben Sachs and Judith Quixano, and the tensions between their Jewish identities and English society. The novel’s complex and sometimes satirical portrait of Anglo-Jewish life, which was in part a reaction to George Eliot’s romanticized view of Victorian Jews in Daniel Deronda, caused controversy on its first publication. This Broadview edition prints for the first time since its initial publication in The Jewish Chronicle Levy's essay "The Jew in Fiction." Other appendices include George Eliot's essay on anti-Jewish sentiment in Victorian England and a chapter from Israel Zangwill's novel The Children of the Ghetto. Also included is a map of Levy's London with landmarks from her biography and from the "Jewish geography" of Reuben Sachs.

The Romance of a Shop (1888) is a novel by Amy Levy. Published the year before her tragic death, The Romance of a Shop is the debut novel of a pioneering writer and feminist whose poetry and prose explores the concept of the New Woman while illuminating the realities of Jewish life in nineteenth century London. “The air of desolation which hung about the house had communicated itself in some vague manner to the garden, where the trees were bright with blossom, or misty with the tender green of the young leaves. Perhaps the effect of sadness was produced, or at least heightened, by the pathetic figure that paced slowly up and down the gravel path immediately before the house; the figure of a young woman, slight, not tall, bare-headed, and clothed in deep mourning.” Following the unexpected death of their father, sisters Fanny, Gertrude, Lucy, and Phyllis are left with little inheritance and even less hope for the future. On the brink of despair, they join together to launch a photography business, each contributing to the best of their abilities in order to survive. As Lucy begins an apprenticeship with a local photographer, her sisters purchase and prepare their own studio for her return. Despite their efforts, they struggle to convince customers that a shop owned by women can demand the same prices as those run by men. Through perseverance and luck, however, the Lorimers find success as funeral photographers and through their connection to a prominent artist. As romance, illness, and war interrupt their plans, the sisters find solace in their mutual resolve to not only survive, but provide and care for one another. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition Amy Levy’s The Romance of a Shop is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

Novel describes the problems of a family in which husband and wife are oppressed and frustrated by the roles that they are expected to play. Evangeline Knapp is the ideal housekeeper, while her husband, Lester is a poet and a dreamer. Suddenly, through a nearly fatal accident, their roles are reversed; Lester is confined to home in a wheelchair and his wife must work to support the family. The changes that take place between husband and wife and between parents and children are handled in a contemporary manner.