Feminism and the Large Paper Edition of “Goblin Market”

By Zoe Fanzo

When interpreting the allusions within Rossetti’s magnum opus, the fundamental text of “Goblin Market” is a very necessary component, but studying the physical printings and subsequent editions allows for a more comprehensive indulgence into the potential relevant themes. Among the most prevalent interpretations of “Goblin Market” by scholars has been a feminist approach to the work. Some interpretations of the poem insist that the work alludes to deviant female sexual desire in a world of conservative Victorian mores.

The text alludes to feminist values and concepts through the motifs of female sexuality and desire, sisterhood, and in its critique of the exclusionary male-dominated art world. Beyond the text, the legacy of Rossetti’s feminism lived on through subsequent editions of “Goblin Market.” In December of 1893, only a year before Rossetti’s death, 160 copies of a large paper edition of “Goblin Market” were printed. Most relevantly, almost all of the laborers that worked on creating these large paper editions were women.

By examining a copy of this rare edition of “Goblin Market,” it becomes clear that the laborers who worked on these books were women. The book is covered with beautiful, precise, hand-done watercolor illustrations. One copy of the edition, stored at the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection at the Library of the University of Delaware, reads, “The illustrations in this book were coloured by hand by Miss Gloria Cardew.” Further, a marking indicates that the book was rebound with a brown leather binding and gold leaf impressions several years after its initial publication by Rosalie Vigels, a member of the Guild of Women-Binders. This organization, which ran from 1898 to 1904, was founded to promote and distribute the work of women bookbinders. It helped to sell bindings produces by women, and to train other women to join the field.

The leather-bound, illustrated, large paper editions were bound by the Guild of Women-Binders. Seen at the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection at the Library of the University of Delaware.

A label indicates that “the illustrations in this book were coloured by hand by Miss Gloria Cardew.”

The philosophies of the Guild were, in many ways, an extension of the feminism presented in “Goblin Market.” Like Rossetti, the skilled women binders were marginalized in their respective field. Francis Karslake, the founder of the Guild, asserted that “women could equal or even surpass the capabilities of men in a particular field.” The Guild was an extension of the Arts and Crafts movement, as it reasserted the value of handiwork and skilled craft, essentially raising “the status of the makers and reinfusing theproduct with the crafts-person’s intelligence and personality.” This organization, which valued the skilled labor of women at a time when it was exceptionally taboo, perpetuated the legacy of feminism within “Goblin Market” by preserving it with expert female craftsmanship.