Christina Rossetti, Speaking Likenesses

Joshua Fagan (University of St Andrews)

Ed. by Dainy Bernstein, University of Pennsylvania
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1874

Places

England (Country of Origin)

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Few works in the extensive oeuvre of Christina Rossetti are as defiantly strange as

Speaking Likenesses

. It received a puzzled reception upon its release, and critical attitudes toward it have hardly shifted. Rossetti, in a letter to her brother Dante Gabriel in May 1874, describes it as “merely a Christmas trifle” that “would be in the

Alice

style with an eye to the market” (

Family Letters

44).

This characteristically self-deprecating note underplays the sheer weirdness of the work. As Rossetti indicates, Speaking Likenesses indeed consciously imitates the style of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which had already achieved classic status since its release in 1864. Speaking Likenesses does not, however, pay homage to Carroll as much as contest and undermine

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1722 words

Citation: Fagan, Joshua. "Speaking Likenesses". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 February 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16039, accessed 31 October 2024.]

Christina Rossetti, Speaking Likenesses

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