The House of Life (1898, The Siddal Edition)

An attractive silk-bound copy of D G Rossetti's sonnet sequence

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

"The Siddal Edition". Small hardback, bound in green silk with gilt titling and design to spine and upper board. All edges gilt. 15.5 × 11cm, 118pp. Photogravure frontispiece by Arthur Ellis.

D G Rossetti's complex sequence of 101 sonnets that took him thirty years to complete and widely considered one of the most significant sonnet sequences in the English language. Blending physical sensuality with mystical spirituality, the book is divided into two main parts. Firstly, Youth and Change: these sonnets focus on the "religion of love" exploring the ecstasy of physical union and the idealized beauty of the beloved. The second part, Change and Fate, are more sombre, as the sonnets reflect on the transience of life, the bitterness of regret, and the looming shadow of death.

Condition

An attractive copy, but with some fading to the green cloth at the top of the upper board by the spine and some mottled fading to the rear. Previous owner's bookplate and a hand-written Biblical quotation. The contents in very good order.