[Book] Desperate Romantics
Yup, still diving into the world of the Pre-Raphaelites. This book, by Franny Moyle, left me feeling a little sad, though. The previous couple of books I'd read were specifically on Elizabeth Siddall and Fanny Cornforth, and while they did make me feel frustrated at the treatment of women in general at that time and them in particular, there were still a lot of gaps, a lot of things we still don't know, and I came away from both glad that someone had been prepared to do meticulous research on each, fill in some gaps, and give them an identity beyond 'muse', Lizzie as artist and Fanny as the woman who held Rossetti together, both things that really ought to have been recognised in their lifetimes. There was a note of celebration. As a history of most of the major figures in the movement this book is necessarily more sketchy, because it's covering numerous people living complicated lives. The women largely fare better than the men as most of them – Siddall the obvious...
