Levy inserts many autobiographical details in The Romance of a Shop; for example, Gerty's poem which is published in The Woodcut is actually Levy's own poem "A Game of Lawn-Tennis" which had been printed two years earlier and would be reprinted in Levy's posthumously published Plane-Tree one year later. Additionally, Levy places Lord Watergate's residence at the home where the Levy family lived from 1872 to 1884.[2] Levy targeted a popular audience with Romance and strove for a commercially successful reception rather than significant literary achievement, a purpose which she reserved for her more serious work Reuben Sachs. In an 1888 correspondence to Violet Paget, Levy wrote demeaningly of her aspirations in writing The Romance of a Shop in comparison to Reuben Sachs, stating "I have purposely held in my hand."[a]
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