Ethel Lilian Voynich

Ethel Lilian Voynich , née Boole, was an Irish-born musician, novelist, translator and revolutionary, publishing in the 1890s and the first half of the twentieth century. She is renowned for her first novel, The Gadfly, though she did not learn of its international success and her worldwide popularity until five years before her death. Her following four novels were unable to rival its success. Music was always her foremost passion—she played the piano, wrote compositions, and taught both performing and composing.