The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Circle

Cecil Y. Lang, Cecil Y. Lang

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780226228389
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

This useful volume presents the major works of the five leading Pre-Raphaelite poets. Foremost in the collection, and included in their entirety are D. G. Rossetti's The House of Life, C. G. Rossetti's "Monna Innominata, " William Morris's "Defence of Guenevere, " Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon, and Meredith's "Modern Love." Complementing these major poems is a fine, generous selection of the poets' shorter pieces that are typical of their work as a whole. For this second edition, Cecil Lang has substituted two early Swinburne poems, "The Leper" and "Anactoria, " for Fitzgerald's The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. These poems, which the editor describes as "shocking, " show a new aspect of Swinburne not discussed previously. Lang's Introduction describes briefly the founding of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, discusses each of the Pre-Raphaelite poets, both individually and in relation to the others, and grapples with the questions of definition of Pre-Raphaelitism and the similarities between its painting and poetry. The bookis appropriately illustrated with thirty-two works by D. G. Rossetti, John Ruskin, William H. Hunt, and other Pre-Raphaelite artists.This is the only anthology availablethat provides a representative selection of the work of these important poets. It will be indispensable to students of Victorianpoetry and appreciated by readers interested in the Pre-Raphaelites.