Dinah Roe

The Rossettis In Wonderland : A Victorian Family History

The exiled Italian poet Gabriele Rossetti arrived in London in 1824 with a few letters of introduction, little money and less English. But within a single generation, he would bequeath to his new city a remarkable cultural legacy through the accomplishments of his children. There was the poet and defining Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel; the poet and religious thinker Christina, the nun and Dante Alighieri scholar Maria; and William, who combined a life of English letters and art criticism with a successful career as a civil servant.

The lives and achievements of the Rossettis are placed within the wider context of the artistic, literary and spiritual communities that inspired them and that they shaped in their turn. They worked with each other and in collaboration with the most famous figures of the day – Tennyson, Swinburne and Ruskin – as well as within significant groups like the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Anglo-Catholic Sisterhoods. Even the minor characters in the family story are remarkable, such as the Rossettis’ aunt Eliza Polidori who went to serve as a Nightingale Nurse in the Crimean War, and their cousin Henrietta Polydore who was abducted by her mother and hidden with the Mormons in Utah.

The Rossettis In Wonderland describes the Rossetti family and their rise to fame and influence against the vividly realised background of Victorian London. Each member of this Anglo-Italian family, and their social circle, has an interesting story to tell individually, but collectively, their stories paint a portrait of an era.

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Haus (2011) ISBN: 9781907822018

Pre-Raphaelite News Roundup

At 180 years old this month (b. 12 May, 1828) Dante Gabriel Rossetti is still hogging the headlines. There was the previously unknown portrait of Jane Morris which recently came to light in a private collection in Scotland, but it was the strange tale of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent Jeffrey Meehan’s recovery of a stolen picture of Alexa Wilding during a sting in Alaska that really got my attention. In a case that involves surnames right out of a detective novel (Leboeuf, Sternback, Weshenfelder) with a storyline reminiscent of ‘Northern Exposure’ in its heydey, Rossetti’s picture was recovered alongside a haul of illegal walrus tusks.

But the US Fish and Wildlife Service is not the first to suggest a connection between Pre-Raphaelitism and the noble walrus. That honour goes to John Lucas Tupper. His 1850 essay for the Pre-Raphaelite magazine, The Germ, described the intoxicating odour of ‘camphor’ emanating from a stuffed walrus at the British Museum, which ‘permeated the whole collection’. It was ‘a literary smell’. Incredibly perhaps, he regarded this as a good thing, associating the scent of camphor with artistic integrity and imagination: ‘Now let a poem, a painting, or sculpture, smell ever so little of antiquity, and every intelligent reader will be full of delightful imaginations.’ Click HERE for the full essay.

As always, the Pre-Raphaelites trump any twenty-first century pretenders to weirdness, even tusk smugglers in Alaska.

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Poetic Music with Deborah Rose

Welsh songstress Deborah Rose performs songs from her forthcoming debut album Song Be My Soul , featuring the works of Shakespeare, Tennyson and Christina Rossetti amongst other original songs. She has a truly beautiful voice as well as a sensitive ear for nineteenth-century poetry, and this is a wonderful opportunity to hear her in person. Don’t miss it! Watch the blog for an upcoming interview with Deborah about song-writing and poetry. Click HEREfor details.

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Dinah Roe

Dinah Roe is a writer and a lecturer in nineteenth-century English literature. Her latest book is a biography of the Rossetti family, The Rossettis In Wonderland. Born and raised in New York State, she was educated at Vassar College, Oxford (St. Edmund Hall) and University College London. She lives in London with her husband, and enjoys teaching, writing and strolling the banks of the Thames while moodily misquoting The Waste Land. Living abroad has taught her to pay attention to the importance of place. She believes that where we live, and move, and have our being shapes who we are and who we will become.

She is represented by Andrew Lownie

Pre-Raphaelites in the City

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This blog explores the thriving Victorian cities which inspired the Pre-Raphaelites, and were shaped by them in turn. While the Pre-Raphaelites produced poetry and art praising the natural world, most were born and raised in urban environments, and their work retained a cosmopolitan sensibility. Although this blog will sometimes take excursions into the countryside, its focus will remain on city life. If you want more information on images or sources, please get in touch.