Goblin Market and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

Rating:
Summary: for lovers of poetry
Review: I think Goblin Market was a wonderful book for whatever type of life you happen to live. Each and every poem can be interpereted in so many different ways to pertain to your own life. The poems were not meant to be taken literally word for word, and the religious aspects of the book do not necessarily need to be interpereted just as they are written. It is a book of poems written by a strong woman that was not afraid to show her feelings. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys poetry and has an open and thoughtful mind.

Rating:
Summary: for lovers of poetry
Review: I think Goblin Market was a wonderful book for whatever type of life you happen to live. Each and every poem can be interpereted in so many different ways to pertain to your own life. The poems were not meant to be taken literally word for word, and the religious aspects of the book do not necessarily need to be interpereted just as they are written. It is a book of poems written by a strong woman that was not afraid to show her feelings. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys poetry and has an open and thoughtful mind.

Rating:
Summary: An exquisite and sensuous work
Review: The lead Amazon review, I think, is very much off the mark. Rossetti's works include passionate, idealized references to men, so it is doubtful she was a lesbian. Therefore Goblin Market was likely an outlet for the strong sexuality of a strong woman bound by the conventions of Victorian society. It has been speculated that Goblin Market, as a poetic work of Pre-Raphaelite fantasy fiction, was written with the expectation that its sexual symbolism would be recognized by readers. I disagree, and believe many Victorians took it as a cautionary allegory warning girls against the wiles of the "coarser gender". Until some literary scholar of the period or of Rossetti steps forward with definitive social or biographical information, I believe Victorian mothers may have read this work to young daughters, both blind to the innuendos and imagery. That said, whether Goblin Market's nuances were meant to be patent or subliminal, it stands as a classic of its literary type, and is an exquisite, sensuous and passionate poetical work.

Rating:
Summary: Precious and Important.
Review: Whether you happen to know the how's and why's of Christana Rossetti's life and time, her poetry, and especially Goblin Market, is truely amazing. Of course knowing her circumstanses only makes the joy and fascination even bigger for a comtemporary reader. The courage and the cost for a woman to be able to write what she wrote can only be imagined. She is the original Girl Power if ever there was such a thing and Goblin Market a legacy of its time.