This book re-conceives Christina Rossetti's poetic identity by exposing the androcentric bias inherent in the histories of the Rossetti family and of Pre-Raphaelitism, by turning new attention to the Rossetti women, and by reconstituting a female and religious community for Rossetti's writing. Drawing on extensive archival research, Mary Arseneau investigates how Rossetti's religious faith sustains her poetic practice and authorizes her cultural and aesthetic critique; the result is a re-evaluation and re-contextualization of the whole range of Rossetti's writing.