Today, she is still considered an inspiration to many. Who was Christina Rossetti? This article focuses on this British-Italian or Italian-British writer, so you can never say later that you knew nothing about Christina Rossetti.
Christina (Georgina) Rossetti was born as a daughter of Gabriele Rossetti (1783 – 1854) and Frances Polidori (1800 –1886), on 5 December 1830. She was the youngest of four children: Maria Francesca Rossetti (1827 –1876), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 1882), William Michael Rossetti (1829 – 1919) and Christina Georgina Rossetti.
Her father was also a poet, constitutionalist, scholar and nobleman. He founded the secret society, Carbonari. Because of his political beliefs, he was forced into exile. He was a supporter of the constitutional system. In 1824, he arrived in Londen. He married Francesca and the Rossetti family lived on Charlotte Street (nowadays Hallam Street) in London.
Even before she could write, she made up her first story. Her mother played the main role in this story. It was her mother who homeschooled Christina. To keep the family from falling into a financial crisis, her mother decided to apply for a teacher’s job in 1843. Her father couldn’t teach anymore, because of bronchitis. This made him very depressed.
Her sister became a governess and so was Christina supposed to do. Things went differently though. She became engaged with the painter James Collison (1825 – 1881), but it was broken off when he reverted to Catholicism in 1850. Eventually, he would marry someone else.
Poverty
In 1853 Christina helped her mother to keep a school open in Frome, but it wasn’t successful. The family fell into poverty. In 1854 her father died and the situation became even more difficult. She got another two marriage proposals. She refused them both on religious grounds.
Her fame as a poet rose when she published “Goblin Market and Other Poems” in 1862. She was hailed as the successor of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1861) by critics. The poem “Goblin Market” was more than a story of two sisters. It was an attempt to stress the importance of gender equality at a time when it was nearly impossible for women to profit from the same treatment or rights as men did. It would still take a long time before there was such a thing as gender equality. This made Christina Rossetti ahead of her time.
Autoimmune disease
In 1872 she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disease. In 1893 she developed breast cancer. The tumour was removed, but one year later the disease reoccurred. On 29 December 1894, she died. She was buried at Highgate Cemetary.
About this article
This article previously appeared on The Ministry of Poetic Affairs website. This website was active between 2016 and 2018. After that, the website was active in 2020 and 2021. The website was an initiative of De Goede Huisvader, also responsible for Artigenda. That’s the reason why you can now find this article on this website.
