Goblin Market (Signed limited edition)

London: George G. Harrap & Co, 1933. Limited edition. Fine/Very Good. Number 403 of 410 copies signed by Arthur Rackham. Octavo (9 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches; 228 x 146 mm.). 44, [1], [3, blank] pp. Four full-page color plates and nineteen drawings in black and white. Publisher's limp vellum, front cover decoratively lettered in gilt, pictorial end-papers in green and white, top edge gilt, others uncut. A fine copy in the Very Good original (chipped) glassine wrapper and slipcase with limitation label with matching number. Chemised in a full tan morocco slipcase. Chemise with bookplate of renowned collector Richard Manney.

Goblin Market (composed (truncated) in April 1859 and published in 1862) is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti. In a letter to her publisher, Rossetti claimed that the poem, which is interpreted frequently as having features of remarkably sexual imagery, was not meant for children. However, in public Rossetti often stated that the poem was intended for children, and went on to write many children's poems. When the poem appeared in her first volume of poetry, Goblin Market and Other Poems, it was illustrated by her brother, the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Among Christina Rossetti's most influential works, here her poem is combined with the dark and seductive illustrations of Rackham. "Set in a fairy world and exploring themes of temptation, sacrifice, and salvation, Goblin Market tells the story of a fraught encounter between two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, and evil goblin merchants.” (BL). In exchange for goblin fruit, Laura gives them a piece of her hair, but after eating all the fruit begins to waste away. To save her sister Lizzie, bravely goes to the market, and resists the goblins attempts at force-feeding her. Laura kisses the juice off her sister's cheeks and is miraculously, but painfully, healed. Years later, Laura and Lizzie describe their experience in the goblin market to their own children as a cautionary tale about the importance of sisterly love. Scholars have read the poem as a morality tale about temptation and sexual violence, while others interpret it as a veiled critique of capitalism and industrialized England.

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is perhaps the most acclaimed and influential illustrator of the Golden Age of Illustration. A prolific artist even from his youth, Rackham got his start as an illustrator working for the Westminster Budget Newspaper (1892). Over the next few years, he took on more and more commissions for children’s books, hitting his career high in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rackham turned his imaginative pen to every classic—from Shakespeare to Dickens to Poe.

Latimore and Haskell, p 69; Riall, p. 179. Fine in Very Good dust jacket. (Inventory #: 6367)