A daughter's tribute to her mother: Christina Rossetti in her own words to her mother Frances Rossetti (nee Polidori)

 

Mother and Daughter posed together, Frances Rossetti and daughter Christina Rossetti by Charles Dodgson,  albumen print, 7 October 1863, NPG

A beautiful tribute to her mother in Christina Rossetti's own handwriting:

Sonnets are full of love, and this our tome

So full of sonnets:  so here now shall be

A sonnet and a love - sonnet from me

To my first love, my Mother, on whose knee

I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;

Whose heart is still my heart’s most quiet home,

Whose service is my special dignity,

And she my loadstar while I go and come.

And so because you love me, and because

I love you Mother, i have woven a wreath

Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honoured name:

In you not fourscore years can dim the flame

Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws

Of time and change and mortal life and death.

The above was from a two page undated letter by Christina Rossetti to her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  Housed and Archived as part of Christina Rossetti's papers at Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas. 

A tribute to my mother as tomorrow is the anniversary of her passing.

As long as there is still breath in me, you will never be forgotten.

The Moxon Tennyson: A Landmark in Victorian Illustration-Series in Victorian Studies by Simon Cooke

 

Hardcover
ISBN 978-0-8214-2426-1
Retail price: $80.00
Release date: January 2021
81 illus. · 254 pages · 7 × 10 in

The Lady of Shalott by William Holman-Hunt

Engraved by the Dalziels /J. Thompson, 1857, Wood engraving

A new perspective on a book that transformed Victorian illustration into a stand-alone art.

Edward Moxon’s 1857 edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Poems dramatically redefined the relationship between images and words in print. Cooke’s study, the first book to address the subject in over 120 years, presents a sweeping analysis of the illustrators and the complex and challenging ways in which they interpreted Tennyson’s poetry. This book considers the volume’s historical context, examining in detail the roles of publisher, engravers, and binding designer, as well as the material difficulties of printing its fine illustrations, which recreate the effects of painting. Arranged thematically and reproducing all the original images, the chapters present a detailed reappraisal of the original volume and the distinctive culture that produced it.

Simon Cooke is the editor for book illustration and design on Victorian Web. He is the author of Illustrated Periodicals of the 1860s and coeditor of two collections of essays. He has published on Victorian book art, Gothic, Sensationalism, and the Pre-Raphaelites.

I've been reading my review copy from publishers Ohio University Press. It's a beautiful edition and seeing the gorgeous illustrations from all the illustrators not just the well-known Pre-Raphaelite painters has reminded me of the beauty of Tennyson's poems. It makes me want to sit down and read his beautiful words over and over again.

Stay tuned for my upcoming review.  I just wanted to post this for anyone who might want to request  a review copy or purchase it. Please know that it is expensive though.

If you are in the United Kingdom,  Waterstones

If you are in the United States,  Ohio University Press