[citation needed] Her longest residence was just outside Florence in the Palmerino villa from 1889 until her death at San Gervasio, with a brief interruption during World War I.

During the First World War, Lee adopted strong pacifist views[3] and was a member of the anti-militarist organisation the Union of Democratic Control.

[4] Scholars speculate that Lee was a lesbian and had long-term intense relationships with three women, Mary Robinson, Clementina Anstruther-Thomson, and British author Amy Levy.

She was so nervous that it wouldn't live up to her expectations that she escaped to the garden and listened rapturously through an open window as her mother worked out the music on the piano.

[8] She developed her own theory of psychological aesthetics in collaboration with her lover, Kit Anstruther-Thomson, based on previous works by William James, Theodor Lipps, and Karl Groos.

[5][9] She was known for her numerous essays about travel in Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland, which attempted to capture the psychological effects of places rather than to convey any particular piece of information.

[11][12] Her open resistance against World War I and her work Satan the Waster led to her being ostracized by the younger generation of scholars and writers.