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 Rossettis, William Morris, John Ruskin, George Meredith, and Algernon Charles Swinburne. Organized chronologically, the book enables the reader to trace the most prominient artists and writers within each decade, revealing how their influence alternately increased and waned over time and further how their work was received by Victorian critics, by turn friendly, satirical and hostile. Carolyn Hares-Stryker's introduction addresses the principles and origins of the movement, describing the social and political evants 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.

Poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti crowns this outstanding collection: highlights include "The Blessed Damozel," "My Sister's Sleep," and selections from The House of Life. Also includes Christina Rossetti's "Remember," "Cousin Kate," and "Song," plus Swinburne, and more

This vibrant collection of essays claims that a complex network of texts by critics, biographers and diarists established the credibility and influence of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Throughout the twentieth century, Modernist taste failed to acknowledge the achievement of oppositional groupings such as the Pre-Raphaelites. The essays collected here, however, reveal that the British group anticipated later avant-gardes by using the written word to configure for itself a radical artistic identity. Public and critics alike were scandalized by the radicalism of Pre-Raphaelite painting, its unflinching portrayal of historical figures and of contemporary life, and its irreverent attitude to artistic convention. Pre-Raphaelitism's innovations were not confined to style: new forms of artistic identity and behaviour were explored. As the contributors interrogate the texts through which Pre-Raphaelitism was constructed, they demonstrate that the movement's wide influence as a cultural phenomenon derived from the interplay between exhibited works and critical discourse. Applying a range of sophisticated methodologies from the fields of literary studies, art history, and cultural studies, these interdisciplinary essays uncover the neglected role of texts in the success of the Pre-Raphaelite rebellion and argue in favor of a new centrality for this movement in the history of nineteenth-century European culture.

This illustrated book focuses on the Pre-Raphaelite artists and their radical departure from artistic conventions. Barringer explores the meanings encoded in Pre-Raphaelite paintings and analyses key pictures and their significance within the complex social and cultural matrix of 19th century Britain.

This unique collection demonstrates the profoundly interdisciplinary nature of Pre-Raphaelitism, and contains contains whole texts and key extracts from key Pre-Raphaelite figures such as William Morris, and from less well-known figures.

A general introduction to the Pre-Raphaelite movement, treating both literature and visual art.

The Pre-Raphaelite Movement began in 1848, and experienced its heyday in the 1860s and 1870s. Influenced by the then little-known Keats and Blake, as well as Wordsworth, Shelley and Coleridge, Pre-Raphaelite poetry 'etherialized sensation' (in the words of Antony Harrison), and popularized the notion ofl'art pour l'art - art for art's sake. Where Victorian realist novels explored the grit and grime of the Industrial Revolution, Pre-Raphaelite poems concentrated on more abstract themes of romantic love, artistic inspiration and sexuality. Later they attracted Aesthetes and Decadents like Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley and Ernest Dowson, not to mention Gerard Manley Hopkins and W.B. Yeats.