Book excerpt: Containing a stunning array of romantic paintings, this book brings together two important aspects of Victorian culture--the Pre-Raphaelite movement and the meaning of flowers. Few artistic movements capture classic notions of beauty as romantically as the Pre-Raphaelites--a group of nineteenth-century painters and poets who aimed to revive the purer art of the late medieval period. In this beautiful volume, Debra N. Mancoff, an expert on Pre-Raphaelite art and the floral lexicon, presents forty breathtaking works, which illuminate the meaning of flowers in all aspects of Victorian culture. She offers brief commentaries on individual paintings as well as biographies of the period's leading artists and their models. This book is both a romantic keepsake as well as a captivating introduction to an artistic movement.