Goblin Market - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

By Christina Georgina Rossetti and Arthur Rackham

Christina Rossetti’s famous narrative poem is a gothic fantasy, dangling two young sisters before sin and death. The lyrical masterpiece is brought to life with haunting illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

Lizzie and Laura are best friends as well as sisters. They love each other dearly, and nothing can come between them. But when Laura falls victim to temptation and is persuaded to eat the fruit a grotesque group of goblins offer her, the sisters’ relationship is tested. Will Lizzie be able to save Laura from a tragic end? With themes of morality, sin, and redemption, Goblin Market is one of Christina Rossetti’s most popular pieces, first published in 1862.

The wonderful poem is accompanied by haunting, dream-like illustrations by Golden Age Illustrator Arthur Rackham. His unique style refines and elucidates Rossetti’s masterful poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473388666

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) was an English writer best known for her Romantic poetry and traditional Christmas carols. She was the sister of the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Her poetry features heavily religious symbols and often ponders themes of life and death. Her most celebrated works include ‘Goblin Market’, (1862) and ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ (1872).

Book preview

GOBLIN·MARKET

MORNING and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry:

"Come buy our orchard fruits,

Come buy, come buy:

Apples and quinces,

Lemons and oranges,

Plump unpecked cherries,

Melons and raspberries,

Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,

Swart-headed mulberries,

Wild free-born cranberries,

Crab-apples, dewberries,

Pine-apples, blackberries,

Apricots, strawberries;—

All ripe together

In summer weather,—

Morns that pass by,

Fair eves that fly;

Come buy, come buy:

Our grapes fresh from the vine,

Pomegranates full and fine,

Dates and sharp bullaces,

Rare pears and greengages,

Damsons and bilberries,

Taste them and try:

Currants and gooseberries,

Bright-fire-like barberries,

Figs to fill your mouth,

Citrons from the South,

Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;

Come buy, come buy."

Evening by evening

Among the brookside rushes,

Laura bowed her head to hear,

Lizzie veiled her blushes:

Reviews for Goblin Market - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

[alcracka · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I do get around to almost every book recommended to me. It might take me a year, but I will get there. So, thanks El! This poem was a ton of fun! I especially liked the part where the nubile young woman sucks nectar off her sister's neck. I was all, "Aw yeah! High five!" But I was alone, so I had to high five myself. It's less depressing than it sounds. No it's not.

It's a weird, wicked poem. The meter and rhyme scheme are schizophrenic; I tried to track it for a while, but you actually can't. Rosetti has no intention of being consistent. That adds to the creepy feel of the poem, as you're constantly off balance. I'm not sure what the goblin fruit represents. Addiction? Marriage? Lesbian incest? I think, like most of the best poems, it can mean whatever you like to think it means.

Dope stuff, yo.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Possibly one of my all-time top five Victorian poems. The mythopoeic sexual violence of it. The feminist cri de coeur. The dreamy feyness of the goblin men, and their ghostly song and he promise of fruits unattainable by other means (I think of that (male) stripper in the Thriller jacket who drugged me on Koh Phangan). The rhyme scheme, and the way it fractures, unravels, thaws into a dew, and then resolves and reforms and returns.

[ursa_diana_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Probably my favorite poet,( though I'm rather fond of Byron too)Any goth worth her salt should be familiar with Christina Rosetti, she's so dark and melancholy and yet there's something very innocent and even hopeful in her verses- it's beyond beautiful.