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The Face Of The Deep: A Devotional Commentary On The Apocalypse
The Face of the A Devotional Commentary on the Apocalypse is a book written by Christina G. Rossetti and published in 1893. The book is a commentary on the biblical book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse, which describes the end of the world and the return of Christ. Throughout the book, Rossetti offers her insights and reflections on the various chapters and verses of the Apocalypse. She provides a devotional perspective, emphasizing the spiritual lessons that can be gleaned from the text. The book is divided into chapters, each of which covers a different section of the Apocalypse. Rossetti provides an overview of the text, followed by her commentary and interpretation. She draws on her extensive knowledge of biblical scholarship and her own personal faith to offer a thoughtful and insightful analysis of the text. Overall, The Face of the Deep is a valuable resource for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Apocalypse and its significance for Christian faith and practice. Rossetti's commentary is both informative and inspiring, making this book a must-read for anyone interested in biblical studies or Christian theology.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2008
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About the author
Christina Rossetti
345 books563 followersChristina Georgina Rossetti, sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, wrote lyrical religious works and ballads, such as "Up-hill" (1861).
Frances Polidori Rossetti bore this most important women poet writing in nineteenth-century England to Gabriele Rossetti. Despite her fundamentally religious temperament, closer to that of her mother, this youngest member of a remarkable family of poets, artists, and critics inherited many of her artistic tendencies from her father.
Dante made seemingly quite attractive if not beautiful but somewhat idealized sketches of Christina as a teenager. In 1848, James Collinson, one of the minor pre-Raphaelite brethren, engaged her but reverted to Roman Catholicism and afterward ended the engagement.
When failing health and eyesight forced the professor into retirement in 1853, Christina and her mother started a day school, attempting to support the family, but after a year or so, gave it away. Thereafter, a recurring illness, diagnosed as sometimes angina and sometimes tuberculosis, interrupted a very retiring life that she led. From the early 1860s, she in love with Charles Cayley, but according to her brother William, refused to marry him because "she enquired into his creed and found he was not a Christian." Milk-and-water Anglicanism was not to her taste. Lona Mosk Packer argues that her poems conceal a love for the painter William Bell Scott, but there is no other evidence for this theory, and the most respected scholar of the Pre-Raphaelite movement disputes the dates on which Packer thinks some of the more revealing poems were written.
All three Rossetti women, at first devout members of the evangelical branch of the Church of England, were drawn toward the Tractarians in the 1840s. They nevertheless retained their evangelical seriousness: Maria eventually became an Anglican nun, and Christina's religious scruples remind one of Dorothea Brooke in George Eliot's Middlemarch : as Eliot's heroine looked forward to giving up riding because she enjoyed it so much, so Christina gave up chess because she found she enjoyed winning; pasted paper strips over the antireligious parts of Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon (which allowed her to enjoy the poem very much); objected to nudity in painting, especially if the artist was a woman; and refused even to go see Wagner's Parsifal, because it celebrated a pagan mythology.
After rejecting Cayley in 1866, according one biographer, Christina (like many Victorian spinsters) lived vicariously in the lives of other people. Although pretty much a stay-at-home, her circle included her brothers' friends, like Whistler, Swinburne, F.M. Brown, and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). She continued to write and in the 1870s to work for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. She was troubled physically by neuralgia and emotionally by Dante's breakdown in 1872. The last 12 years of her life, after his death in 1882, were quiet ones. She died of cancer.
Frances Polidori Rossetti bore this most important women poet writing in nineteenth-century England to Gabriele Rossetti. Despite her fundamentally religious temperament, closer to that of her mother, this youngest member of a remarkable family of poets, artists, and critics inherited many of her artistic tendencies from her father.
Dante made seemingly quite attractive if not beautiful but somewhat idealized sketches of Christina as a teenager. In 1848, James Collinson, one of the minor pre-Raphaelite brethren, engaged her but reverted to Roman Catholicism and afterward ended the engagement.
When failing health and eyesight forced the professor into retirement in 1853, Christina and her mother started a day school, attempting to support the family, but after a year or so, gave it away. Thereafter, a recurring illness, diagnosed as sometimes angina and sometimes tuberculosis, interrupted a very retiring life that she led. From the early 1860s, she in love with Charles Cayley, but according to her brother William, refused to marry him because "she enquired into his creed and found he was not a Christian." Milk-and-water Anglicanism was not to her taste. Lona Mosk Packer argues that her poems conceal a love for the painter William Bell Scott, but there is no other evidence for this theory, and the most respected scholar of the Pre-Raphaelite movement disputes the dates on which Packer thinks some of the more revealing poems were written.
All three Rossetti women, at first devout members of the evangelical branch of the Church of England, were drawn toward the Tractarians in the 1840s. They nevertheless retained their evangelical seriousness: Maria eventually became an Anglican nun, and Christina's religious scruples remind one of Dorothea Brooke in George Eliot's Middlemarch : as Eliot's heroine looked forward to giving up riding because she enjoyed it so much, so Christina gave up chess because she found she enjoyed winning; pasted paper strips over the antireligious parts of Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon (which allowed her to enjoy the poem very much); objected to nudity in painting, especially if the artist was a woman; and refused even to go see Wagner's Parsifal, because it celebrated a pagan mythology.
After rejecting Cayley in 1866, according one biographer, Christina (like many Victorian spinsters) lived vicariously in the lives of other people. Although pretty much a stay-at-home, her circle included her brothers' friends, like Whistler, Swinburne, F.M. Brown, and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). She continued to write and in the 1870s to work for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. She was troubled physically by neuralgia and emotionally by Dante's breakdown in 1872. The last 12 years of her life, after his death in 1882, were quiet ones. She died of cancer.
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February 4, 2026
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was a gifted poet and writer in nineteenth century England.
When the then-poet laureate, Lord Tennyson, reposed in 1892, most of the "working poets" in England recommended that Ms. Rossetti should receive this prestigious honor. But the monarch at the time, Queen Victoria, just couldn't wrap her head around the idea of a woman becoming poet laureate. England's loss surely, but perhaps the world's gain since this slight gave Ms. Rossetti time to write this devotional commentary on this final book in the Biblical canon.
Christina Rossetti's total body of work has been described by some as passionate and devoted. That passion and devotion comes through in this book, her last major work before she sadly expired due to cancer in 1894.
One author and noted American Presbyterian minister, Dr. Robert S. Rayburn, once said the book of Revelations is best understood as a book of snapshots in which the Apostle John tries to write down his descriptions of visions given to him on the island of Patmos by our Lord Himself. Working out an exact calendar of the events described in this Bible book was never meant to be.
Christ gave these visions to St. John as a means to encourage first century Christians who were under severe Roman persecution at the time John wrote the book.
As a passionate Anglican believer, Ms. Rossetti patiently works her way through Revelations using the images that present themselves in her imagination as a vehicle for her resulting inner thoughts about her Christian faith.
One must read The Face of The Deep with focus and intent but the rewards are there. Here you will find much value. Author Rossetti hides some very fine short poems throughout her text. Christina knew her Scriptures and frequently alludes to the same throughout this book. I recommend a careful reading of this book.
When the then-poet laureate, Lord Tennyson, reposed in 1892, most of the "working poets" in England recommended that Ms. Rossetti should receive this prestigious honor. But the monarch at the time, Queen Victoria, just couldn't wrap her head around the idea of a woman becoming poet laureate. England's loss surely, but perhaps the world's gain since this slight gave Ms. Rossetti time to write this devotional commentary on this final book in the Biblical canon.
Christina Rossetti's total body of work has been described by some as passionate and devoted. That passion and devotion comes through in this book, her last major work before she sadly expired due to cancer in 1894.
One author and noted American Presbyterian minister, Dr. Robert S. Rayburn, once said the book of Revelations is best understood as a book of snapshots in which the Apostle John tries to write down his descriptions of visions given to him on the island of Patmos by our Lord Himself. Working out an exact calendar of the events described in this Bible book was never meant to be.
Christ gave these visions to St. John as a means to encourage first century Christians who were under severe Roman persecution at the time John wrote the book.
As a passionate Anglican believer, Ms. Rossetti patiently works her way through Revelations using the images that present themselves in her imagination as a vehicle for her resulting inner thoughts about her Christian faith.
One must read The Face of The Deep with focus and intent but the rewards are there. Here you will find much value. Author Rossetti hides some very fine short poems throughout her text. Christina knew her Scriptures and frequently alludes to the same throughout this book. I recommend a careful reading of this book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review