Rossetti, Christina |
| POET (ENGLAND) |
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BORN 5 Dec 1830, London: 38 Charlotte Street (now: 110 Hallam Street) - DIED 29 Dec 1894, London: 30 Torrington Square, Camden BIRTH NAME Rossetti, Christina Georgina CAUSE OF DEATH cancer (breast and shoulder) GRAVE LOCATION London: Highgate Cemetery West, Swain's Lane, Highgate |
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Youngest of the four Rossetti children. Because of her bad health she was often at home with her mother. Like her, she was a strict Anglican. Her engagement with the painter James Collinson was broken off because he was a Catholic. In 1866 she rejected Charles Bagot Cayley (with whom she was in love) because she did not consider him to be a christian. They remained friends. She wrote poetry and stories, some of them illustrated by her brother Dante Gabriel. Work: "Goblin Market and Other Poems" (1862); "The Prince's Progress and Other Poems" (1866); "Sing-Song: a Nursery Rhyme Book" (1872); "Speaking Likenesses"; "Letter and Spirit". Family • Mother: Polidori, Frances • Father: Rossetti, Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe • Brother: Rossetti, Dante Gabriel • Brother: Rossetti, William Michael Related persons • was a friend of Bell, Henry Thomas Mackenzie • was written about by Bell, Henry Thomas Mackenzie • was engaged to Collinson, James • had work illustrated by Hughes, Arthur • knew Ingelow, Jean • inspired Khnopff, Fernand Events |
| 29/6/1858 | Christina Rossetti writes the poem "At Home". She did this after a picnic. |
| 27/4/1859 | Christina Rossetti completes her poem "Goblin Market". It was to become her most famous poem and it was illustrated by her brother Gabriel Dante Rossetti. She declared that it was 'just a fairytale' but her readers recognized a complex psychological landcape in the poem. Its publication in 1862 in "Goblin Market and Other Poems" caused a sensation and the critics were enthousiastic. One of them was Caroline Norton in MacMillan's Magazine, who noted ''the versatility, as well as the originality of genius'. The British Quarterly was enthousiastic as well in its edition of July 1862. [Norton, Caroline][Rossetti, Dante Gabriel] |
| 31/3/1862 | Christina Rossetti writes "In Progress". It is a sonnet about an unindentified lady friend. Possibly the friend is Laetitia Scott. |
| Images | ||
 The grave of Gabriele Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti and Lizzie Siddal at Highgate Cemetery West, London. Picture by Androom (28 Mar 2016) |
 The grave of Gabriele Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti and Lizzie Siddal at Highgate Cemetery West, London. Picture by Androom (28 Mar 2016) |
 Plaque for Christina Rossetti at 30 Torrington Square, London. She died in this house. Picture by Androom (14 Aug 2016) |
Sources • Crawford, Anne and others, The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women, Europa Publications Ltd, London, 1983 • Jones, Kathleen, Learning not to be first, the Life of Christina Rossetti, The Windrush Press, Gloucestershire, 1991 • Marsch, Jan, Christina Rossetti, A Literary Biography, Random House, London, 1994 • Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (editie 1909), 1909 |
