Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780233002583
ISBN: 0233002588
Label: Andre Deutsch Ltd
Manufacturer: Andre Deutsch Ltd
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: October 06, 2008
Publisher: Andre Deutsch Ltd
Studio: Andre Deutsch Ltd

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Rating: - A Reading Must!
This is a seriously wonderful book.

Charting the short, tragic life of Lizzie Siddal from youth to death and all the bits in between, this book is an absolute joy to read.

Impeccably researched and wonderfully written, it had me crying buckets at the end, but also taught me things I didn't know about her life and death, her relationships and what must have been an emotionally devastating love affair and marriage with the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

If you ... Read More

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Rating: - Disappointing
The subject of the mysterious Elizabeth Siddal is always interesting but I found this book superficial and populist. The background information placing Siddal in her contemporary context (eg. the life of milliners in the 19th century) is perhaps the best thing about it. A lot of it seems to be based on supposition. For a far better, well-researched investigation of Siddal read Jan Marsh's biography 'The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal'.

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Rating: - Quite interesting... not great
This falls somewhere between the specialist art history texts (which it certainly is not) and fictionalised, pop culture biography. By which I mean I think you need to have some interest in pre raphaelite art to find it at all worthwhile - it's not just about the melodrama of Miss Siddall's life. Personally, I think if you're going to do an unhistorical, 'myth of the artist' type narrative you might as well go the whole hog and 'novelise' it. This is half and half. Neither Dante nor Lizzie come out ... Read More

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Rating: - Surprisingly Absorbing Biography
Having a great interest in the world of the Pre-Raphaelites already, I thought at best it would be an interesting read - but it is such a well researched and absorbing book I could not put it down. Lizzie is seen here as human, her life the tragedy of it, and the fact that Rossetti did not cause all of her problems. However I could not leave the book with a dislike of her sometimes manipulative nature. Such is the success of this book. You will not be disappointed if you read it.

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Rating: - Thoughtful and interesting
Lizzie Siddal was so prominent in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites that I thought it would be interesting to find out more about her, and to my knowledge, this is the only biography available.
Although clearly written with interesting and relevant detail, the weakness of this book is that the biographer sets out with the 'tragedy' already in mind. Lizzie's faults (and there were a few of them) are glossed over as a result of her difficult life and love. Her whole life is seen through ... Read More

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