The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti 9: The Last Decade, 1873-1882: Kelmscott to Birchington IV. 1880-1882. - Hardcover

The publishers, D.S. Brewer with the Modern Humanities Research Association, are to be congratulated in seeing this monumental edition through to fruition. It is unfortunate that such printed editions in the electronic age are on the decline. There is something magisterial in holding these volumes in the hands, and in clearly seeing what tremendous scholarship has gone into their compilation. YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES

It is a pleasure to salute the publication of the Rossetti correspondence for the last two years and three months of his life. [...] This is an impressive book, for which all the editors are to be congratulated. THE JOURNAL OF WILLIAM MORRIS STUDIES

On November 11, 1878, Rossetti wrote to Watts-Dunton: `Friday night exactly made a year since my return to London in 1877 & you know how well I have been the whole of that time.' Indeed, in 1878-79, Rossetti lived what might appear to be a more tranquil version of his first years at Cheyne Walk. The long breach with Ford Madox Brown finally ended, and he began to see his brother regularly again; and he managed to complete a number of commissions, and other paintings. However, as the correspondence collected here show, his depression was seldom far away; he was often unable to work. His repeated letters to Watts-Dunton and Shields, asking them to come over, reveal his need for companionship, preferably in his own home, that was a constant of his character. There are also a number of letters to Jane Morris.