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The Collected Letters of Jane Morris

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Presents 570 newly discovered letters from Jane Morris to diverse correspondents, which radically revise the popular view of a silent, discontented invalid and instead portray her as an independent...
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  • 19 March 2024
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Presents 570 newly discovered letters from Jane Morris to diverse correspondents, which radically revise the popular view of a silent, discontented invalid and instead portray her as an independent thinker following her own causes. The vast majority of the letters are unpublished, and are fully annotated.

Jane Morris [1839-1914] was a famous Pre-Raphaelite model, wife of William Morris and one of the Victorian age's most enigmatic figures.

Her long love affair with Dante Gabriel Rossetti has become the stuff of legend. Later she had a romantic relationship with the adventurer Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. Through her daughter May, she had a contentious interaction with George Bernard Shaw. The greater fame of husband and lovers caused her to be overlooked, but she has always aroused historical interest and partisan debate. Like other women in history her emergence from mute image into speaking subject has come about through feminist scholarship, but is of wide appeal.

The editors of this volume have discovered more than 500 letters from Jane to many and diverse correspondents, which radically revise the popular view of a silent, discontented invalid and reveal the range of her interests and opinions.

The majority of the letters are unpublished and are fully annotated. They reveal Jane's involvement in many of Morris's endeavours, such as the family firm Morris & Co., the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, the 1882 Icelandic Relief Committee, and the Kelmscott Press, and offer new insights into the life of the Morris family.

An independent thinker, Jane was politically engaged, although voteless, and her letters are informed by theturbulent events of the 1880s. She did not follow Morris into the Socialist movement, but retained Liberal allegiances and became an ardent supporter of Irish Home Rule.

Jane Morris's letters complement those of her husband William Morris [edited by Norman Kelvin] and her lover Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In addition to the texts, the book includes a selection of the portraits and paintings through which Jane became a Pre-Raphaelite icon and archetypal femme fatale.
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Price: $55.00
Pages: 528
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Boydell Press
Publication Date: 19 March 2024
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781837651382
Format: Paperback
BISACs: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Artists, Architects, Photographers, Biography: arts and entertainment, ART / European, Individual artists, art monographs, Individual architects and architectural firms, Individual photographers, History of art, European history
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This is a work of meticulous scholarship.The letters are fully annotated and each period of Jane's life is given a lengthy and illuminating introduction. [Jane Morris] emerges from the correspondence as a sympathetic, thoughtful person, with a lively sense of humour, political interests that were distinct from those of her husband, and a discerning approach to literature and art.
Introduction: Jane Burden Becomes Jane Morris
Letters 1869-1879
Introduction to Part Two: 1880-1889 The Political Years
Letters 1880-1889
Introduction to Part Three: 1890-1896 William Morris's Last Years
Letters 1890-1896
Introduction to Part Four: 1897-1903 The Morris Heritage
Letters 1897-1903
Introduction to Part Five: 1904-1914 The Last Decade
Letters 1904-1913