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.
Leaving Rome, MF
and her family stopped briefly in Rieti before settling in Florence at the end of September 1849, where they became acquainted with Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
. Despite a great gulf...
BRP
knew personally and corresponded with many of the Victorian intelligentsia. In addition to her Langham Place associates already mentioned, her literary friends and acquaintances included Matilda Hays
, Harriet Martineau
, Anthony Trollope
,...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Rigby
ER
also knew Charles Dickens
, Thomas Carlyle
, and the Brownings
—she admired Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(whom she had met for half an hour) as so interesting a woman.
Rigby, Elizabeth. Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake. Editor Smith, Charles Eastlake, AMS Press.
2: 299
Lochhead, Marion C. Elizabeth Rigby, Lady Eastlake. John Murray.
89-100
Rigby, Elizabeth. “Preface and Memoirs”. Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake, edited by Charles Eastlake Smith, J. Murray, p. Various pages.
1: 225, 257
Friends, Associates
Isa Blagden
IB
became acquainted with the BrowningsElizabeth Barrett Browning
in Florence.
Browning, Robert, and Isa Blagden. “Introduction”. Dearest Isa: Robert Browning’s Letters to Isabella Blagden, edited by Edward C. McAleer, Greenwood Press, p. xix - xxxiii.
xxiii
Friends, Associates
Eliza Ogilvy
In the summer of 1849, the Ogilvys moved into an apartment above that of Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
in Casa Guidi, Florence.
Ogilvy, Eliza et al. “Introduction and Appendices”. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Letters to Mrs. David Ogilvy, edited by Peter N. Heydon and Philip Kelley, Quadrangle, pp. xi - xxiv; 175.
xiv
The families became good friends; according to Barrett Browning, quick...
Friends, Associates
Henrietta Euphemia Tindal
Friends with whom she maintained contact by correspondence included her neighbour Mary Russell Mitford
, who commented to Elizabeth Barrett Browning
that HET
had been wrong in her theory about the authorship of Jane Eyre...
Friends, Associates
Caroline Clive
CC
remained a close friend of her early passion Catherine Gore
.
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.
She was also acquainted with Mary Russell Mitford
, whom she described as priggy,
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.
Somerville, Mary. Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville. Editor Somerville, Martha, Roberts Brothers.
226
Friends, Associates
Camilla Crosland
CC
's friends and acquaintances were varying and numerous. In her youth the radical politician John Cartwright
was a neighbour. Her literary work as an adult led to the formation of a number of lasting...
Friends, Associates
George Sand
She was frequently sought out by British writers during these years, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning
and Charles Dickens. Browning addressed two sonnets to Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man, / Self-called George Sand,
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. The Complete Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Editors Clarke, Helen A. and Charlotte Porter, AMS Press.
2: 239
Friends, Associates
Mary Boyle
Her nephew notes that she was everywhere popular . . . due to the fact that she hated scandal and eschewed gossip.
Boyle, Mary. Mary Boyle. Her Book. Editor Boyle, Sir Courtenay Edmund, E. P. Dutton; John Murray.
x
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
describes her in a similar light, a kinder, more...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Gaskell
EG
adored Rome, and she and her daughters were much sought after there. They met there Harriet Beecher Stowe
and Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(although their visit with the poets was not a success).
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber.