The Letters of Christina Rossetti

The Letters of Christina Rossetti
ISBN-10
0813923174
ISBN-13
9780813923178
Category
Literary Collections
Pages
464
Language
English
Published
2004-11-30
Author
Christina Georgina Rossetti

Description

In recent years Christina Rossetti's star has soared. Rossetti (1830-1894) has come to be considered one of the major poets--not just one of the major women poets--of the Victorian era, eclipsing her famous brother. Leading critics have demonstrated how studies of Rossetti's work, her daily life, her relationships with the Pre-Raphaelites, and her interactions with other women authors of the period can help us understand the unique cultural situation of Victorian women writers. When complete in four volumes, this project will make available all of Rossetti's extant letters, almost two-thirds of which have never been published. The third volume of the Letters covers years in which Christina Rossetti lost several important family members, including her mother, her brother Dante, and a young nephew, Michael, and many close friends. Her preoccupation with their illnesses and with memorializing her brother took its toll on her poetic output. In the face of her loss, she turned increasingly to religion and wrote works of devotional prose--Time Flies, Letter and Spirit--not designed to attract much literary attention. Rossetti herself had been diagnosed with Graves' disease in 1872; by 1874 she had recovered but continued to use her earlier health problems to identify herself as a "semi-recluse," which allowed her a degree of freedom she might not have had otherwise. This self-imposed reclusiveness, however, gave rise to a large correspondence, in which her interests and sensibilities were given broad exposure. She devoted more time to favored causes, including antivivisectionism and the protection of minors, and her letters afford the reader an in-depth perspective on these and other public issues and on the personal values underlying her opinions.

Other editions

Similar books

  • A Concordance to Conrad's Victory
    By Todd K. Bender, James W. Parins, Robert J. Dilligan

    ossession:-amā'the “oise: , ś head'ail but lying under her as deadly, ... seemed to undes stand, exactly how to deal with conceited death 's head.

  • Understanding Ingeborg Bachmann: Understanding Modern European and Latin American Literature
    By Karen Achberger

    Similarly , Nadja in " Word for Word " is reluctant to call Mr. Frankel by his first name , Ludwig , an act which would signal an acceptance of his appropriateness for her , since Ludwig — like Robert , Ernst , Fritz , Erich , Franz ...

  • Bluegrass Cavalcade
    By Thomas D. Clark

    Ellen went to Mrs. Donahue's house for help and Pius was soon hurrying to St. Lucy to telephone for a doctor. When Pius returned he brought the Carriers who remained all night. Bill and Pius helped the doctor set the bone and bind in ...

  • Anime Wong: Fictions of Performance
    By Karen Tei Yamashita

    The mother was on Donahue. 60 Minutes did the doc and they'll repeat the news at ten. People dying, people killing, people crying— you can see it all on TV. Reality is really on TV. It's just another way to see— starvation in North ...

  • Byron: The Erotic Liberal
    By Jonathan David Gross

    Philip P. Wiener . New York : Charles Scribner's Sons , 1973 . Plato . Plato : The Symposium . Trans . and ed . Alexander Nehemas and Paul Woodruff . Indianapolis : Hackett Publishing Company , 1989 . Plummer , Kenneth , ed .

  • Evening Street Review Number 5
    By AMANDA ADAMS, ANDREA BATES, CYNTHIA BELMONT

    When the credits started to roll and Carmen, needing her meds and cigarettes, handed Ryan her car keys, Mary Ellen stared in disbelief. “She's giving him her keys!” she thought, eyeing Pepe, trying to catch his attention because he knew ...

  • The Science of Herself
    By Karen Joy Fowler

    Here she debuts a provocative new story written especially for this series.

  • The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology
    By Karen Joy Fowler, Alexander McCall Smith, Francine Prose

    We make our way slowly into the assembly hall, where 26 identical pillars cut from one rock line the sides. A fat stupa cut of the same rock stands at the innermost part of the hall; 20 feet high, it's shaped like an overturned bowl ...

  • Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context: A Survey of Parallels Between Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Texts
    By John H. Walton

    ... 126 , 134 174 , 203 , 211 , 212 , 216 Theodorides , Aristide , 93 Wiseman , D. J. , 50 , 51 , 67 , Thomas , D. Winton , 170 , 84 , 85 , 89 , 93 , 170 , 200 171 , 200 Thompson , R. Campbell , Wolf , Herbert , 126 22 , 47 , 113 Wright ...

  • Selected Letters: Nicholas Hagger's Letters on His 55 Literary and Universalist Works
    By Nicholas Hagger

    Everyone seems to have got something out of the speeches, the Metaphysical Revolution was declared, and Shelley's wind is now scattering “sparks, my words among mankind” (the passage Kathleen Raine quoted). We now hope it translates ...