To Read and Dream

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin BooksOne of the finest poets of the Victorian age, Christina Rosetti is known today for the directness, clarity and unmatched lyricism of her works. This selection brings together some of her finest verses, love lyrics and sonnets for the contemporary reader. Spanning themes like love, death, loss, womanhood and devotion to pleasures both earthly and divine, these are poems of startling beauty, as evocative and relevant today as when they were first published.

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was one of the greatest female writers of the nineteenth century. She was born in London into a remarkably creative family; her father was an exiled Italian revolutionary and poet and her brothers William and Dante Gabriel Rossetti were founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In 1862 Rossetti published her first full collection of poetry, Goblin Market and Other Poems.