Jenny

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: Poetry, Victorian, Classics

38 pages, Print on Demand

Published October 30, 2018

About the author

British poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, brother of Christina Georgina Rossetti, founded the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, a society, in England in 1848 to advance the style and spirit of Italian painting before Raphael (Raffaelo Sanzio); his known portraits and his vividly detailed, mystic poems, include "The Blessed Damozel" (1850).

This illustrator and translator with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais later mainly inspired and influenced a second generation of artists and writers, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the Symbolists, a group of chiefly French writers and artists, who of the late 1800s rejected realism and used symbols to evoke ideas and emotions. He served as a major precursor of Aestheticism, an artistic and intellectual movement or the doctrine, originating in Britain in the late 19th century, that from beauty, the basic principle, derives all other, especially moral, principles.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad this wasn’t the first long poem I’d read by Rossetti. The lurid theme (for the Victorian era) and contemporary theoretical trend towards gender studies are the only things going for it. The meter and rhyme are rather simple, and the theme is just as tired and worn out as poor Jenny. From Petronius to the Police’s “Roxanne,” the madonna–whore complex/hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold lament is as old as the “oldest profession” in Western culture. This poem doesn’t add much to the discussion, beyond being a Victorian representation of the trope.

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Need to re-read again, might change my rating later.

[Yello 🧸 · Rating 3 out of 5]

for class

[Ashley Marilynne Wong · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it a bit sexist but perhaps my view would alter when I had attended my lecture and seminar on it and had developed a better understanding of it? Let's wait and see...