Evening star., 1933-02-04
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C. BOWERMAN.

of the manuscripts of Rossett,'s poems
probably the same which the emotional
and remorseful poet buried in his wife's
coffin and later disinterred, make a
recent book by q modern OF pre-
Raphaelite traditions very timely. "The
Wife of Rossetti" (New York: E. P.
Dutton g. Coz is by Violet Hunt. who
is the wife of Ford MADDOX Ford Cat
times In his history Ford MADDOX Huef-
fer), whose aunt was the wife OF Will
liam Rossetti. In her elliptical, dreamy
poetic, altogether unconventional prose
Violet Hunt might herself be one OF
that entirely separate school Of paint
ers and poets who lived during the
Victorian age, but had little commerce
with their other contemporaries. Her
biography Of the wife Of Dante Gabriel
RoSsetti includes glimpses OF the pre-
RaphaeliteS and constructs q picture OF
their Bohemian. always Impoverished
existence. The picture Is morbid, al
most macabre, one Of disease, drugs and
constant suffering We understand why
the Blessed Damozel, the Donna della
Pinestre, the Lady Lilith, the Beata
Beatrix and all Rossettis other pictured
heroines, as we'll as those Of most OF
the other re-Eaphaelite painters, look
SO tuberculous.
/
Rossetti's wife was Elizabeth Eleanor
Siddall, frail girl, daughter Of cutler
and matchmaker, apprentice to m1lli-
ner. She became Rossetti's model and
like another Iphigeneia, she was sacri-
feed and slain that the P. r. B. (pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood) might conquer
and live, with her red hair for gonfalon.
Her blood served for the amounting of the
corner stone, for the solemn ratification
of this cult and its acceptance by a
backward nation" Rossetti early fell
| in love with her, as he did with many
other women: for he was anything but
| sing minded in his amatOry life. They
became engaged to be married, but the
engagement dragged on for many years,
Rossetti was reluctant to burden him.
self with matrimonial responsibilities
and to tie himself to chronic invalid
who was able to be comfortable only
through the use Of drugs. Long before
the marriage hie love for her seems to
have become mere pity.
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall, or "LizZy, ~
appears in her husbands many draw
ings Of her, with "a good figure. a
lofty neck, regular features, brilliant
complexion, hair (abundant) of a
coppery color; her upper lip was
wrong" Her eyelids were heavy and
dropping, and her mouth was full, pout-
| ing both sensual and discontented. Her
unusual type made her much-sought-
after model by others of the pre-
She developed a certain ability and
taste in drawing and water color, per-
haps contagion from the atmosphere in
which she lived. Taking this as an
| opportunity to help her and Rossetti,
who badly needed help, Ruskin, ever
kind, If also meticulous and exacting,
| bought her sketches at good prices
| Ruskin seems to have been the only
one Of their artistic group who ever had
any money. He used it generously and
received Indifferent gratitude. Ros-
Setti'S wife lived but a few years after
the marriage lost her children at birth,
and finally committed suicide, leaving
the message: MY life is SO miserable
wish for no more of it, Miss Hunt
explains the tragedy simply: 1T is
| crashed" but adds: Like Browning, I
never can forgive Rossetti." She says
| Of her information for this biography:
My sources for this life are chiefly
| oral. from the circumstances of my
| childhood and early girlhood, spent so
much in the company of the actors in
| the scenes am attempting to describe,
wandering O mornings in and out of
their houses with messages. and, older,
with good book in my hand, which /
did not read. hearkening as a servant
waiting at table might, to words that I
only half understood. For,
| with nearly all the persons concerned
| in this ancient woe, I have held con-
verse in my degree. except with the
chief protagonist, who died before I
was born" Evidence could hardly be
more flrst-hand. Interpretation, of
course. is always open to question but
Miss Hunt seems to have taken great
gains to balance opinions and to be
fair to all the participants In the tragic
story.
The death recently of George Moore
did not cut short a literary career Of
value, for his work was done A very
| satisfactory sketch of his life and work,
George Moore" by Humbert Wolfe,
was published last year by the oxford
University Press. George Moore was
/ born in 1852. and his last work Of i'm
portance was published in 1914. His
chief novels are "A Modern Lover" "A
Mummer's wife" "A Drama in Muslin, -
Esther Waters" Evelyn Innes' and
its sequel Sister Teresa; THE Brook
Kerith" and 'Heloise and Abelard" !"
"Celibates" and THE Untitled Field
are collections of short stories. In 1888
he published an photographed work,
Confessions of Young Man." which
was followed in 1906 by Memoirs of
My Dead Life and in 1914 by Hail
and Farewell" Gave appeared in 1911,
So1 In, vol lov IN,
\ X ~
When Sinclair Lewis, who has been
spending the Winter in Austria. saw
| in newspaper that he had bought a
house in Vienna, he said that he never
| intended to own house anywhere ex-
cept in Vermont. When he learned
from the English press that he had
| been slated for special post" under
marked: Unfortunately it wasn't kind
enough to let me know what post, leav-
| ing me timorous as to whether it may
be the embassy in Peiping or q cell at
Atlanta"
A nights outing at a fair brought
about the meeting of Deborah. slave
servant Of crazy old Mrs. Arbuthnot,
and Jess Mortimer who later became
her husband Deborah, in "The Fall
low Land" by H. E. Bates. Is lowly
Demeter, dedicated to the soil. her in
stinctive and only love. The few bar
rem acres which old Mrs. Mortimer had
hated because they meant drudgery for
her and never brought in any money,
Deborah worships. Both the earth,
sweet in Spring and Autumn, natural,
eternal yielding flowers and loveliness, u
and the land which never rested or
relented ate into the body of q
man" were to her the only verities.
Her husband, a drunkard, deserted the
farm, but she bought more land with
| legacy of her old mistress and raised
| crops on even the poorest soil. Her
sons brought her no happiness; her
derelict husband came back to burden
her; but her abiding satisfaction in
the land compensated for every other
lack.
| X