Old Controversies, New Texts: Two Recent Books on Pre-RaphaelitismDante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris: Their Correspondence. Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Jane Morris , John BrysonThe P. R. B. Journal: William Michael Rossetti's Diary of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 1849-1853, Together with Other Pre-Raphaelite Documents. William Michael Rossetti , William E. Fredeman

Abstract

Until recently the complexity and uncertain extension of Pre-Raphaelitism rendered it almost inaccessible to critical analysis. Such confusion multiplied biographical anecdotes, and Pre-Raphaelite biography was long dominated by naive moralism and derivative psychology. The Pre-Raphaelites have come now to seem less inaccessible, rebellious, and alien from their fellow Victorians, but this has been the result of many efforts at location, organization, and interpretation of letters and documents which relate to Pre-Raphaelitism and to the Rossetti family. The most significant publications have been: (1) William Fredeman's PreRaphaelitism: A Bibliocritical Study (1965, extended by later bibliographical surveys);2 (2) his biographical reconstruction of the most difficult and least recorded years of Dante G. Rossetti's life, Prelude to the Last Decade: Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the Summer of 1872 (1971); and (3) Virginia Surtees's The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonne (2 vols., 1971). More accurate biography, criticism, and editing of texts are still needed to understand almost every aspect of Rossettian and Pre-Raphaelite life and literary achievement. The two editions under review have made recent contributions, one modest and one substantial. Publication of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris: Their Correspondence before the appearance of a complete edition of Rossetti's letters is an obvious response to sentimental interest in their liaison in the years 1867 and 1868 and following.3 The volume derives unity from its record of what Rossetti considered the central relationship of his life, and is illustrated by the portraits of Jane Morris discussed in the letters. The extant portion of their correspondence is fragmentary: his letters extend with gaps from 1868 to 1881, the year before his death;4 but hers are sparser, briefer, and begin in 1878. The correspondence both