Jerome Hamilton BuckleyCritiques

A weirdly engaging study of various (mostly minor, mostly horrible) movements in Victorian aesthetics: Spasmodic poetry, Gothic revival, etc. Vividly captures the cycles of angst and reaction between romanticism and decadence, making modernism seem like a good idea without condescending to what came before. Highly recommended to someone who doesn't want to read Tennyson or Browning themselves but still wonders why someone might read them.

The book that started my interest in all things Rossetti. A wonderful collection of the poetry from the fascinating and talented Pre-Raphaelites.