Rossetti

by A.C. Benson

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Hardcover

First published June 1, 1973

About the author

Arthur Christopher Benson was an English essayist, poet, author and academic and the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Benson was born on 24 April 1862 at Wellington College, Berkshire. He was one of six children of Edward White Benson (1829-1896; Archbishop of Canterbury 1882–96; the first headmaster of the college) and his wife Mary Sidgwick Benson, sister of the philosopher Henry Sidgwick.

Benson was born into a literary family; his brothers included E.F. Benson, best remembered for his Mapp and Lucia novels, and Robert Hugh Benson, a priest of the Church of England before converting to Roman Catholicism, who wrote many popular novels. Their sister, Margaret Benson, was an artist, author, and amateur Egyptologist.

Reviews

[Dizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sensitive and empathetic treatment of the life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It was written while his brother, William Michael Rossetti (Victorian literary critic and poet in his own right), was still alive and with his permission and assistance. The biography encompasses Rossetti's early and teenage life as well as his adulthood, his professional career, his peculiar and fascinating personality, his painting, personal correspondence, and of course, some analysis of his extensive body of poetry.

I found this book at my university library while looking for sources for an essay on Rossetti. I didn't end up using this one in my paper, but I read it from cover to cover, regardless. What a brilliant, genius, and volatile life this man lived! The stereotype of artists being somewhat odd people is certainly lived out here; from Rossetti's artistic family, his circle of talented yet worshiping friends, his tumultuous career, the scandalous and tragic marriage to Elizabeth Siddal and the later exhumation of her body, to Rossetti's controversial poetics and eventual illness and death... It is an incredible life story and one I think this biography does justice to.

I highly recommend this, or any, biography of D. G. Rossetti if you're looking for an interesting non-fiction read. I'd like to own this, but goodness knows where I'd find a copy of this ancient old book...