The Poems of Elizabeth Siddal in Context

(Hardback)

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A unique analysis of every Siddal poem alongside works by Rossetti, Swinburne, Ruskin, Tennyson and Keats, and places them in prevailing cultural, political and religious contexts.

A ground breaking new book that considers all Siddal poems with reference to female and primarily male counterparts, adding substantially to knowledge of her work as a writer, and their shared contemporary concerns. Dante Rossetti, Swinburne, Tennyson, Ruskin and Keats were either known to her or a source of influence on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with which she was associated, and certain of their texts are compared with hers to discuss interplay between erotic and spiritual love, the ballad tradition, nineteenth-century feminism, and the Romantic concept of the conjoined physical and spectral body. Siddal's artwork is used to introduce each chapter, while other Pre-Raphaelite paintings illuminate the texts and further the inter-disciplinary philosophy of the Brotherhood. This important and stimulating book focuses on the intrinsic merit of Siddal's poetics whilst advocating a research method that could have multiple applications elsewhere.

Reviews

'Woolley robustly engages with Siddals strange, intense lyrical ballads...'
The Critic

'This critical study of Siddals life and poetry is hugely significant in our reassessment and re-understanding of Victorian women writers. A voice that has been forgotten and seen as a morbid footnote in the shadow of her husband has emerged as a poetess and artist of the same distinction as her contemporaries and worthy of closer critical attention.'
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Author Bio

Anne Woolley is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at Keele University