“I hope some day to see the same and a wider field traversed by some friend of older standing and consequently of far warmer affection towards his hero; who, whatever he was or was not, was lovable.”

Her judgement of Gabriel ultimately returns from reputation to affection · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 7 December 1882

• Fame
• Love
• Memory

“I am working away at copying Mamma's contingent of Gabriel's letters — such good old letters some of them, so loving — and some so funny. It is a sad task, though one I like to perform.”

Preserving family letters becomes both an act of love and an encounter with grief · Letter to Lucy Rossetti, autumn 1882

• Death
• Love
• Memory

“O dear! how willingly would I incur Income Tax for the sake of not murdering Egyptians or any one else: and our Mother would, I am sure, double or triple hers with the same object.”

A strikingly personal protest against the human cost of British military policy · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 1882

• Truth
• War

“I write because I cannot but write, for you are continually in my thoughts and always in my heart.”

A direct expression of the profound attachment she felt towards her brother · Letter to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 2 December 1881

• Love
• Memory

“The snail — I interpose a space between him and your poems! — soothes and solaces my taste.”

A whimsical aside showing her delight in a humble creature amid literary discussion · Letter to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, September 1881

• Art
• Joy
• Nature

“I am somewhat in a quake, a fresh volume being a formidable upset of nerves,—but at any rate, it cannot turn out twins!”

A new book becomes a comic equivalent of childbirth in this self-deprecating remark · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 28 April 1881

• Art
• Joy
• Poetry

“I don't think harm will accrue from my S.P.C.K. books, even to my standing: if it did, I should still be glad to throw my grain of dust into the religious scale.”

Religious purpose mattered to her more than literary standing · Letter to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1 January 1881

• Art
• Faith
• Fame

“One certainly may walk the world as one's own wet blanket, and perhaps such is our friend's well-known tourist costume.”

A wonderfully dry description of someone carrying his own gloom wherever he goes · Letter to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1880

• Despair
• Joy

“It is balm to my Mother and to me to hear a man of genius who is also a Christian, who speaks of the personages and facts of the Bible as of personages and facts.”

Rossetti welcomes artistic talent joined explicitly to religious conviction · Letter to Frederic J. Shields, 1878

• Art
• Faith
• Truth

“Our standard of comfort does not include all the show demanded by modern luxury.”

A succinct rejection of ostentation in favour of simpler standards of living · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 5 November 1873

• Truth

“I am truly sorry for my ebullition of temper this morning (and for a hundred other faults).”

A disarming instance of Rossetti's severe self-scrutiny · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 5 November 1873

• Truth

“What I do not like (if you will suffer my boldness) are the characters of your principal personages. Surely they are detestable.”

An unusually forthright piece of literary criticism delivered with characteristic courtesy · Letter to Oliver Madox Brown, July 1873

• Art
• Truth

“I like touches about animals, and sympathy with their poor little cares and fortunes.”

A revealing expression of her tenderness towards animals and small lives · Letter to Oliver Madox Brown, July 1873

• Art
• Nature

“The delightful life at Kelmscott ought not soon to slip from my memory, nor ought I soon to forget whose kindness provided me with so many pleasures.”

Gratitude and memory are closely joined in her recollection of Kelmscott · Letter to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, July 1873

• Friendship
• Joy
• Memory

“If dear Lucy and you are as happy as I would (if I could) make you, earth will be the foretaste and stepping-stone to heaven.”

She imagines human happiness as preparation for a greater spiritual fulfilment · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 10 July 1873

• Faith
• Hope
• Love

“When earth is an anteroom to heaven (may it be so, of God's mercy to us all), earth itself is full of beauty and goodness.”

A compact expression of the faith through which Rossetti perceived earthly beauty · Letter to Lucy Brown, 10 July 1873

• Beauty
• Faith
• Hope

“May love, peace, and happiness, be yours and his together in this world, and together much more in the next.”

Earthly affection and religious hope are inseparable in her blessing · Letter to Lucy Brown, 10 July 1873

• Faith
• Hope
• Love

“I should like to be a dozen years younger, and worthier every way of becoming your sister; but, such as I am, be sure of my loving welcome to you as my dear sister and friend.”

A warm and humble welcome to the woman who was to marry her brother · Letter to Lucy Brown, 10 July 1873

• Friendship
• Love

“They are very superior to my preconceived notions of them, and indicate talent and feeling: if such poetry may be trusted for telling a true tale.”

A shrewd caution against assuming that poetry is straightforward autobiography · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 28 July 1851

• Art
• Poetry
• Truth

“I am far from blind to the poetry of Mrs. Scott's verses.”

An example of Rossetti separating critical reservations from genuine appreciation · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 28 July 1851

• Art
• Poetry

“I have not yet filled up your rhymes, but still hope to do so; only I will not delay writing till the inspiration comes.”

A practical view of inspiration from a young poet already wary of waiting for it · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, 19 September 1849

• Art
• Poetry

“Still justice must take precedence of generosity.”

A concise statement of principle placing fairness before sentiment · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, August 1849

• Truth

“Still I cannot endure the idea that I may be losing some possible communications through neglect.”

Her anxiety about correspondence reveals the importance she placed on connection · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, August 1849

• Friendship
• Memory

“Ah Will! if you were here we would write bouts-rimés sonnets, and be subdued together.”

A playful glimpse of poetry as a shared family amusement · Letter to William Michael Rossetti, August 1849

• Friendship
• Joy
• Poetry