Signa

First published in 1875, Signa tells the tender story of an illegitimate orphan boy who is saved from death during a flood when he is one year old.

His two uncles find him clinging to the breast of his dead mother, and, afraid that the villagers might accuse them of murder, they let the floodwaters take her body away and tell everyone they found the unknown baby alone in the field.

Then one day he sees an old violin for sale in a shop window and asks to hold it…

Under the pen name of Ouida, English author Marie Louise de la Ramée (1839-1908) wrote many popular novels in the 1870s and 80s. During her career, Ouida wrote more than 40 novels, children's books and collections of short stories and essays. Eccentric and ostentatious (she loved purple writing paper and Lord Byron), scorned by many male writers, but beloved by female readers, Ramée and her signature works became something of a talisman for forward-thinking women the world over.