- Paperback: 608 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix; New edition edition (1 Dec 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0753818973
- ISBN-13: 978-0753818978
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.2 x 4.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 470,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Jan Marsh is the author of the standard biography of Christina Rossetti, the marvellous Christina Rossetti: A Literary Biography. Her new biography of the brother is bigger, meatier and if anything an even more extraordinary achievement. Partly this is because Rossetti's life is so full of incident: his marriage to the beautiful, frail Lizzie Siddal, and his grief and self-blame at her death; his affair with William Morris's wife Jane; his own nervous breakdown which came on him suddenly (Marsh begins one section with the striking sentence: "The next day, Gabriel was deranged"). Partly it is that the Pre-Raphaelite movement, of which he was so central a figure, remains inherently fascinating today. Marsh concedes that although Rossetti's extraordinary poems "now languish largely unread", his paintings, with their "highly coloured iconic images" are still seen as masterpieces.
Marsh is able to balance painting and poetry, the two strands of Rossetti's life, with consummate skill, providing excellent readings of both and demonstrating their inter-relations. Her account of the life is detailed and, cumulatively, simply stunning-- in large part because she steers clear of the more lurid possibilities. As Marsh points out, "it has been so common to paint Rossetti as a lusty philanderer ... generally bedding all available models, that his celibacy requires more explanation." Startling to see Rossetti described as a "celibate", but Marsh is excellent on the repressed, paradoxical attitude towards sex that emerges from Rossetti's famously sensual art. Overall her restraint pays dividends, because Rossetti emerges at the end of the book in a new light--no longer a sordid Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood caricature but a deeply human if flawed and contradictory character. This book is a triumph. --Adam Roberts --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Exemplary... [Marsh] catches the pathos of a man who has for too long been parodied or put down.' (THE TIMES )
'Marsh is ideally placed to write this biography... She brings to life the painter and poet.' (THE HERALD )
'Marsh is ideally placed to write this biography... She brings to life the painter and poet.' (THE HERALD )
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First Sentence
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti was born on 12 May 1828, and baptized into the Church of England at All Souls, Langham Place, a fashionable church in central London. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti was born on 12 May 1828, and baptized into the Church of England at All Souls, Langham Place, a fashionable church in central London. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This scholarly biography gives an insight into the thinking of the Pre-Raphaelite circle, particularly with respect to symbolism and medievalism in Pre-Raphaelite art. Jan Marsh has written a fascinating account of the life of DG Rossetti, the most charismatic personality of the group if not the most technically brilliant. At the same time, she offers insights into the lives of Ruskin, Millais, Hunt, Elizabeth Siddal and the Anglo-Italian Rossetti family. In the middle of the Victorian era, Rossetti was anything but a Victorian. Like Oscar Wilde, he put his talent into his work and reserved his genius for his life. The biography is therefore very much worth reading.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This scholarly biography gives an insight into the thinking of the Pre-Raphaelite circle, particularly with respect to symbolism and medievalism in Pre-Raphaelite art. Jan Marsh has written a fascinating account of the life of DG Rossetti, the most charismatic personality of the group if not the most technically brilliant. At the same time, she offers insights into the lives of Ruskin, Millais, Hunt, Elizabeth Siddal and the Anglo-Italian Rossetti family. In the middle of the Victorian era, Rossetti was anything but a Victorian. Like Oscar Wilde, he put his talent into his work and reserved his genius for his life. The biography is therefore very much worth reading.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A genius of a poet, a genius of an editor
27 Mar 2001
Format:Hardcover
Next to the glory of his paintings, it's easy to forget that Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a talented poet as well. It's easy to overlook his written work, even such classics as "Jenny" and "The Blessed Damozel", and the sonnets.
In this lovely anthology, Jan Marsh -- the foremost authority on the Pre-Raphaelite circle -- has collected and arranged Rossetti's writings. Buy this book, and sample the elegance of Victorian literature, and the genius of Rossetti.
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