'Ouida' was born at Bury St. Edmunds of an English mother and French father, who encouraged her in reading history, liberal politics, Balzac and Stendhal. She wrote 'Held in Bondage', 1863, 'Under Two Flags', 1867, melodramatic tales of love and intrigue, and novels such as 'Moths', 1880, and 'A Village Commune', 1881, on social questions. From 1871 she lived in her beloved Florence.