Here, for the first time, is a panoramic overview of the most resonant work of the Pre-Raphaelite era in one handy volume. Combining well-known works with previously neglected materials, this ambitious anthology includes writing and art by such figures as the Rosettis, William Morris, John Ruskin, George Meredith, and Algernon Charles Swinburne.
Organized chronologically, the book enables the reader to trace the most prominent artists and writers within each decade, revealing how their influence alternatively increased and waned over time and further how their work was received by Victorian critics, by turn friendly, satirical, and hostile. Replete with paintings, first-hand accounts of evens and personalities, and the Pre-Raphaelites' own reflections, in their diaries and letters, on this fertile era, the volume serves as a lyrical recreation of one of the most explosively productive moments in Western cultural history.
Carolyn Hares-Stryker's introduction addresses the principles and origins of the movement, describing the social and political events that shaped the Pre-Raphaelites and the themes to which they returned again and again: social reform, religion, and its role in contemporary life, the allure of the past, and the fragility of utopia.
