A note on the two biographies on CGR that I read: The main differences

This summer I read Jan Marsh's Christina Rossetti: A Writer's Life as well as Georgina Battiscombe's Christina Rossetti: A Divided Life. Here are some notes on the difference between the two. Marsh's win's hands down for the most comprehensive examination of the writer and her work to date. It's exhaustive and contains a wealth of information. It is also the first (or so the author claims) to look seriously at CGR's religious literary output. Marsh spends too much time tho' contemplating whether or not CGR was a victim of sexual abuse at her father's hands. As we have nothing but the poet's behavior to go on, I happen to think this is a fruitless avenue to pursue.

All this said, I found Battiscombe's style more approachable and I think I would have understood Marsh's better having read B's first. She lays out CGR's life in a much more fluid way - the characters that play in the poets life are much more memorable in this bio. Her focus is primarily on the division of eros and agape in the author's life and poetry.

More later.