Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
-
Standard Name: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Birth Name: Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett
Nickname: Ba
Pseudonym: EBB
Married Name: Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Browning
Used Form: E. B. Barrett
Used Form: Elizabeth B. Barrett
Used Form: Elizabeth Barrett Barrett
Used Form: E.B.B.
Used Form: E. B. B.
EBB
was recognized in her lifetime as one of the most important poets of mid-Victorian Britain. She wrote a significant corpus of poetry which ranges from the lyric through the closet drama or dramatic lyric and the dramatic monologue to the epic, as well as letters and criticism. For much of the twentieth century, interest in her focused on her romantic life-story, her letters, and Sonnets from the Portuguese. Late in the century, critical interest in her epic female künstlerroman or verse novel Aurora Leigh and her other political poetry—in which she took up the causes of working-class children, the abolition of slavery, women's issues, and the Italian Risorgimento—revived. She is again considered one of the leading and most influential voices of her day.
During an earlier visit to Italy in the summer of 1853, FK
's social circle had included Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
, and her former acquaintance Harriet Hosmer
. She met the young Anne Thackeray
in Rome.
Clinton, Catherine. Fanny Kemble’s Civil Wars. Simon and Schuster.
156
Marshall, Dorothy. Fanny Kemble. Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Meyers, Terry L. “Swinburne Reshapes His Grand Passion: A Version by ’Ashford Owen’”. Victorian Poetry, Vol.
31
, No. 1, West Virginia University, pp. 111-15.
111
Friends, Associates
A. Mary F. Robinson
Her parents, who were the friends of many literary and artistic people, introduced her to an impressive social circle. Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
, William Michael Rossetti
, Thomas Hardy
, Walter Pater
,...
Friends, Associates
Margaret Oliphant
While in Rome, MO
met Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
.
Williams, Merryn. Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography. St Martin’s Press.
31
Friends, Associates
Edward FitzGerald
Despite a somewhat reclusive life both before and after his separation from his wife within a year of their marriage, he was well connected with the Victorian literary scene, and expressed strong opinions on women...
Friends, Associates
Mary Russell Mitford
MRM
first met the young Elizabeth Barrett (later Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
, in London, though Barrett's cousin John Kenyon
.
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers.
2: 174
Mudge, Bradford Keyes, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 116. Gale Research.
116: 196
Friends, Associates
Florence Nightingale
Around this time FN
became acquainted with other literary women as well. In July 1852 George Eliot
, who had become her correspondent, remarked in another letter that there is a loftiness of mind about...
Friends, Associates
Anna Brownell Jameson
ABJ
was introduced to Elizabeth Barrett
by John Kenyon
.
Thomas, Clara. Love and Work Enough: The Life of Anna Jameson. University of Toronto Press.
HM
's social circle vastly expanded at this time until she knew virtually all the prominent people, particularly the political men, of her day. As she recorded in her Autobiography, however, she refused to...
Friends, Associates
Anna Brownell Jameson
ABJ
and her niece Gerardine
departed for Paris, where they encountered the BrowningsRobert Browning
, who had just eloped, and all four travelled together to Pisa.
Thomas, Clara. Love and Work Enough: The Life of Anna Jameson. University of Toronto Press.
Somerville, Mary. Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville. Editor Somerville, Martha, Roberts Brothers.
226
Friends, Associates
Hans Christian Andersen
HCA
dedicated his book A Poet's Day Dreams to Charles Dickens
, whom he visited in 1857. He also, while visiting England, stayed with William
and Mary Howitt
at The Elms, Lower Clapton. Elizabeth Barrett Browning