Posts

Showing posts with the label Lizzie Siddal

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

Image
A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...

Lizzie Siddal - The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel by Lucinda Hawksley

Image
Lizzie Siddal was one of the models used by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The group were always looking for "Stunners" as Dante Gabriel Rosetti called them. That meant, someone with a personality that could shine through their paintings. In Lizzie they found one of the most charismatic ones. Unfortunately for her, she had a weak constitution and when falling in love with Rosetti, her life seemed a constant worry to keep him, since he had an eye for beautiful women. Lucinda Hawksley has written a fascinating and respectful biography of Lizzie Siddal's sad life. Here some of the more breathtaking turns of her life. It was Walter Howell Deverell who found her in a milliner's shop. At the time, 1849, she was twenty years old and lived with her family. The family had been rich, but lost their fortune and their estate. The father fought his whole life in courts to retrieve the inheritance, but in vain. Lizzie therefore grew up with a notion that they came from a ba...