Chapters in this book

1. Front matter i
2. Contents v
3. List of illustrations viii
4. Preface x
5. Acknowledgements xvi
6. Part I Death – the epitome of tropes 1
7. 1 Preparation for an autopsy 3
8. 2 The lady vanishes 15
9. 3 Violence of representation – representation of violence 39
10. Part II From animate body to inanimate text 57
11. 4 The ‘most’ poetic topic 59
12. 5 Deathbed scenes 76
13. 6 Bodies on display 95
14. 7 The lady is a portrait 110
15. 8 Noli me videre 141
16. Case study: Wife to Mr Rossetti – Elizabeth Siddall (1829–62) 168
17. Part III Strategies of translation, mitigation and exchange 179
18. 9 Sacrificing extremity 181
19. 10 Femininity – missing in action 205
20. 11 Close encounters of a fatal kind 225
21. Part IV Stabilising the ambivalence of repetition 253
22. 12 The speculated woman 255
23. 13 Rigor has set in – the wasted bride 269
24. 14 Necromancy, or closing the crack on the gravestone 291
25. 15 Risky resemblances 324
26. 16 Spectral stories 349
27. 17 The dead beloved as muse 360
28. Case study: Henry’s sister – Alice James (1848–92) 384
29. Conclusion: aporias of resistance 393
30. 18 From muse to creatrix – Snow White unbound 395
31. Bibliography 436
32. Sources of epigraphs 453
33. Index 455