Aguilar, Grace

Abstract

Living in Britain as a Sephardic Jew, Grace Aguilar constantly negotiated between her English and Jewish identities in her works and life. Her writing in various genres provided a vivid early Victorian view of the way a Jewish woman, outside mainstream Victorian culture, viewed both the Christian and Jewish communities of her time and in history. Although many of her finest works addressed Jewish audiences and subjects, she also wrote domestic fiction on secular subjects and appealed to Christian readers as well a Jewish audience. Her poetry, published throughout her career, reveals a keen appreciation and influence of Romantic poetry, as well as knowledge of Hebrew Scriptures. Aguilar's acclaim and reputation in the United States with Jewish audiences grew considerably after she published The Spirit of Judaism and The Women of Israel ; her novella, The Perez Family , was widely read by the Jewish communities in both Britain and the United States, but Aguilar regretted that its realistic and sympathetic depiction of a Jewish family did not reach a wider audience.