Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange
Abstract
Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti\u27s best-known narrative poem, appeared in 1862 as the leading poem in Goblin Market and Other Poems, a volume designed to attract the Christmas trade. Since then, the few scholars who have ventured to regard Miss Rossetti as something more than Dante Gabriel\u27s sister have concerned themselves with varied and in-depth critical interpretations of Goblin Market. William Rossetti, brother and biographer of the poet, reports that he had often heard Christina say that she meant nothing profound by the fairy tale and that Goblin Market should not be taken as an apologue. Disregarding Christina Rossetti\u27s own comment, the critics seem to ·divide themselves into three distinct groups with each presenting a different critical approach to Goblin Market
