Created by Mila Kulevska on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 11:39
Description:
The novel Goblin Market: A Caitlin Reece Mystery was first published by Naiad Press in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1993. This version appears to be a first edition copy. The Naiad Press was one of the first publishing companies to be dedicated towards publishing lesbian stories and feminist texts. It was considered the oldest lesbian literature publisher in the world before merging into Bella Books. This book was primarily marketed towards lesbian readership, as it was part of the popular Caitlin Reece Mysteries series featuring the namesake lesbian detective. The main plotline features a lesbian couple being terrorized by a sexual-predator rendition of the goblins from the original Rossetti poem. This book incorporates a heavily modified retelling of Rossetti’s poem, “Goblin Market”, reinterpreting the story in a modern sense. Similar to the original, the narrative still features an emphasis on sisterhood as well as the plot point of dealing with sinister goblins (men in this version) selling elusive and addicting goods. The author of the text is Lauren Wright Douglas, born December 14, 1947. Douglas has authored several other pieces of lesbian fiction for the Naiad press, including science-fiction such as In the Blood and A Plague of Change, mystery novels, and various short stories. She has won several literary awards for her contribution to lesbian literature. The only illustration seems to be the one used for the front cover. It is unclear who the illustrator of the front cover is, but it appears as if they used a collage style technique through the fusing of photography and illustrations.
Principal Research Sources:
Kooistra, Lorraine Janzen. "No Sex, Please, We're Victorian: Invoking the Pre-Raphaelite Sexual Signifier in Popular Culture." Paper presented at Victorians Institute Conference, Chapel Hill, October 20, 2001, PDF.