Lives of Victorian Literary Figures II ─ The Brownings, The Brontes and the Rossettis By Their Contemporaries

This reference presents writings (reproduced in facsimile) by contemporaries, including friends, critics, and other writers, on the Brownings (v.1), the Brontës (v.2), and the Rossettis (v.3). In their introduction to each volume, each editor describes the lives and careers of the writers as well as their reception. Each document or group of documents is also preceded by an introduction, making this set eminently valuable to researchers for the information provided on the writers' wider social and professional circles. Among the 30 works included in v.1 are autobiographical writings by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning on the death of his wife, correspondence with Thomas Carlyle, several short biographies, articles, and excerpts from journals. Eighteen works are included on the Brontës, including letters by Mary Taylor and Elizabeth Gaskell and Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë . The 22 works selected on Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (edited by Hester Jones) include biographical sketches by T. Hall Caine and Joseph Knight, and memoirs by Herbert Gilchrist and Henry Treffry Dunn (all on Dante Gabriel Rossetti) and Virginia Woolf's "I am Christina Rossetti" from The Common Reader . Distribution in the US is by Ashgate. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)