Christina Rossetti - Childhood, Adolescence and Illnesses

Rossetti Context Slides - Italian Exiles, Adolescence and Victorian Medicene

How many siblings did Christina Rossetti have?

She was one of four.

What were her parents’ names and backgrounds?

Gabriele Rossetti - an Italian poet and political exile, and Frances - the daughter of an Italian exile.

What were her siblings’ names?

William and Dante and Maria.

What was her father’s job?

He was a teacher of Italian at Kings College. This allowed him to entertain scholars and writers at home.

What languages did the Rossetti children speak at home?

Italian and English.

How were the children educated?

In the 1830s and 1840s when Christina was growing up, school education was not compulsory, but she was fortunate to have well-educated parents who encouraging girls to learn to read and write. They were also encouraged to appreciate art and literature.

How old was Christina Rossetti when she suffered an emotional breakdown?

14-years-old. It was perhaps related to worries about her family, her fears regarding her faith and her anxieties about her writing.

What happened to her father in the 1840s?

His health suffered and the family’s financial security collapsed. As a consequence, Maria left home to become a governess.

What did her mother do in the 1850s?

She tried to set up a day school, however, it closed after a year. It was also at this time that Christina began to suffer from the ill health that would continue to torment her for the rest of her life.

Why were child morality rates high?

Without the knowledge about the spread of germs that we have today, disease spread rapidly. In the mid nineteenth-century, it is likely that most children would have watched at least one sibling, if not parent, die.

What bouts of illness did Rossetti suffer from?

1840s - she suffered with anaemia and bronchitis
1871 - she suffered with Graves’ disease
1892 – she was operated on for breast cancer
1894 – she died