Goblin Market and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

by Christina Rossetti (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
32 works—among them "The Convent Threshold," "Up-hill," "Cousin Kate," "Winter: My Secret," "Maude Clare," and celebrated title poem.


About the Author
Christina Georgina Rossetti was born in 1830 in London, England. She was the sister of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and formed the subject of many of his paintings. Rossetti began writing when she was seven, but was thirty-one before she saw her first publication. During the 1860s and '70s she worked in a refuge for former prostitutes. She was widely regarded as one of the most important women poets of the Victorian era. She died in 1894 and is buried in Highgate Cemetery. Chris Emery was born in Manchester in 1963 and studied painting and printmaking in Leeds. He is Publishing Director of Salt in Cambridge, England. His work has appeared in numerous journals including The Age, Jacket, Magma, Poetry London, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, PN Review and The Rialto. A first full-length collection, Dr. Mephisto (Arc Publications, 2002), his latest collection is Radio Nostalgia (Arc Publications, 2006). He is also the author or a bestselling writer's guide, 101 Ways to Make Poems Sell (Salt Publishing, 2006). He lives in Great Wilbraham with his wife, three children and various other animals. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (May 20, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486280551
• ISBN-13: 978-0486280554
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #90,635 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars for lovers of poetry, December 23, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Utica, NY) - See all my reviews

I think Goblin Market was a wonderful book for whatever type of life you happen to live. Each and every poem can be interpereted in so many different ways to pertain to your own life. The poems were not meant to be taken literally word for word, and the religious aspects of the book do not necessarily need to be interpereted just as they are written. It is a book of poems written by a strong woman that was not afraid to show her feelings. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys poetry and has an open and thoughtful mind.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Precious and Important., May 3, 2000

By	Joan Andresen (Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

Whether you happen to know the how's and why's of Christana Rossetti's life and time, her poetry, and especially Goblin Market, is truely amazing. Of course knowing her circumstanses only makes the joy and fascination even bigger for a comtemporary reader. The courage and the cost for a woman to be able to write what she wrote can only be imagined. She is the original Girl Power if ever there was such a thing and Goblin Market a legacy of its time.

8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exquisite and sensuous work, July 17, 2000

By A Customer

The lead Amazon review, I think, is very much off the mark. Rossetti's works include passionate, idealized references to men, so it is doubtful she was a lesbian. Therefore Goblin Market was likely an outlet for the strong sexuality of a strong woman bound by the conventions of Victorian society. It has been speculated that Goblin Market, as a poetic work of Pre-Raphaelite fantasy fiction, was written with the expectation that its sexual symbolism would be recognized by readers. I disagree, and believe many Victorians took it as a cautionary allegory warning girls against the wiles of the "coarser gender". Until some literary scholar of the period or of Rossetti steps forward with definitive social or biographical information, I believe Victorian mothers may have read this work to young daughters, both blind to the innuendos and imagery. That said, whether Goblin Market's nuances were meant to be patent or subliminal, it stands as a classic of its literary type, and is an exquisite, sensuous and passionate poetical work.