Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning

This book gathers accounts of the two poets from her precocious childhood to his death in Venice. Comments from contemporaries (including Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne, Tennyson, and Henry James) and from the poets themselves give a range of perspective on their politics, relationships, religious beliefs, ambitions, working habits, and personal appearances. Persistent images--Barrett Browning the frail recluse or Browning the loud and trivial talker who has no apparent connection with Browning the poet--can be seen both establishing themselves and being qualified, rejected, or complicated.

Martin Garrett has taught at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and on American study abroad programs.

Part I: Elizabeth Barrett 1806-46 * Part II: Robert Browning 1812-46 * Part III: The Brownings 1856-61 * Part IV: Robert Browning 1861-89