“Goblin Market” (1862). The reclusive Christina Rossetti was already a very popular English poet before she published this long poem. Peopled as it is with two loyal sisters and a host of little goblin men offering their enticing wares, it was first thought to be merely a fairy tale intended for children. But the careful reader has only to ponder the “Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices, squeezed from goblin fruit for you” or “Eat me, drink me, love me; For your sake I have braved the glen, and had to do with goblin men” to see other levels to her enticing poem. This subtle, erotic subtext has, over the years, enticed many illustrators to draw from it. Christina’s brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (the Pre-Raphaelite painter), was the first, followed by Laurence Housman and Arthur Rackham among many, many others.

—Charles Vess.