Exiles at home : the case of the Rossettis

Abstract

The Rossettis have been called 'the most remarkable household in London.' This needs little explanation: of the four children, two - Dante Gabriel and Christina - are among the most famous and best poets of the second half of the nineteenth century, Gabriel being also a painter. The younger brother, William Michael, would make an ideal subject for a biographer and, indeed, a historian because of the range of his acquaintances, the diversity of his writings, and his important role in editing the work of authors as varied as William Blake and Walt Whitman. Though her final years were spent in retirement, even the life and work of the eldest sibling, Maria Francesca, offers considerable information on the historical and social history of the period, and her The Shadow of Dante (1871) is as good an introduction to Dante's Commedia as any at that time. Where does all this talent come from? And why did it run the course it did? In this article I intend to set out a number of available facts, together with some inferences to be drawn from them, concerning the case of the Rossettis, a family positioned between English and Italian culture.