Goblin Market: A Tale of Two Sisters

A deliciously dark rhyming fairy tale, Goblin Market tells the story of two beautiful, virginal sisters seduced by lewd goblin men serving up luscious but ruinous fruits. Christina Rossetti's first major work, the poem was published in 1862 to critical acclaim. Embraced today for its provocative imagery and timeless theme of forbidden pleasures, the poem has become a literary classic.
This special edition includes the enchanting paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the author's eldest brother and leader of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and illustrations by William Morris, whose beautiful wife, Jane Burdon Morris, was Dante Gabriel's lover and model. A fascinating afterword by acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates places this haunting work of repressed Victorian eroticism in its literary, artistic, and social context.

Christina Georgina Rossetti was part of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, along with her brothers Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William M. Rossetti. She served as a model for them, but also shared in that artistic community, with written contributions to The Germ, a Pre-Raphaelite journal. This poem was published in 1862 and helped establish her reputation, mainly as a writer for children. She wrote poems and religious books. Illness restricted her activities, perhaps adding to the intensity of feeling in her works.