Ouida

(born Jan. 1, 1839, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Eng.—died Jan. 25, 1908, Viareggio, Italy) English novelist. Among her novels, most of them extravagant, melodramatic romances of fashionable life, are Held in Bondage (1863), Strathmore (1865), Chandos (1866), Under Two Flags (1867), and Moths (1880). She also wrote animal stories, including the popular A Dog of Flanders (1872). She settled in Florence in 1874, where reckless extravagance reduced her to acute poverty in later life.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica