Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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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.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Anthologization Robert Browning
Richard Hengist Horne published A New Spirit of the Age, with contributions from a number of authors including Elizabeth Barrett and RB (who had yet to meet).
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “Editorial Materials”. The Brownings’ Correspondence, edited by Philip Kelley et al., Wedgestone Press, 1984–2025, p. Various pages.
8: xii
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography. Grafton, 1990.
379-80
Irvine, William, and Park Honan. The Book, the Ring, and the Poet: A Biography of Robert Browning. McGraw-Hill, 1974.
132
Cultural formation Robert Browning
RB and Elizabeth Barrett Browning participated in a séance with D. D. Home .
Porter, Katherine H. Through a Glass Darkly: Spiritualism in the Browning Circle. Octagon, 1972.
47
death Isa Blagden
Her grave is near those of her friends Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Theodosia Trollope and Frances Trollope ).
death Jessie White Mario
Her funeral procession (which passed Casa Guidi dressed in celebration of Barrett Browning 's centenary) included a handful of surviving Garibaldians, one hundred schoolgirls carrying roses, and a group of university professors.
Daniels, Elizabeth Adams. Jessie White Mario: Risorgimento Revolutionary. Ohio University Press, 1972.
115
She was...
death Julia Pardoe
In her later years JP had endured a great deal of mockery. Samuel Carter Hall noted in his Book of Memories of Great Men and Women of the Age, from Personal Acquaintance that she was...
death Jessie Ellen Cadell
She was buried, says Richard Garnett, in the cemetery which holds the remains of Mrs. Browning and Landor and Theodore Parker and so many other gifted men and women of English race.
Garnett, Richard et al. “Introduction”. The Ruba’yat of Omar Khayam, edited by Richard Garnett, translated by. Jessie Ellen Cadell, John Lane, 1899, p. v - xxx.
xii
An article...
Dedications Robert Browning
It was dedicated to the memory of his wife , with the apostrophe: O lyric Love, half angel and half bird.
Browning, Robert. The Ring and the Book. Editors Collins, Thomas J. and Richard D. Altick, Broadview, 2001.
57
Volumes 1 and 2 were published in 1868; the final volume, number 4...
Dedications Dinah Mulock Craik
The Head of the Family is dedicated to Elizabeth Barrett Browning , whom DMC designates the good influence of my life although not a personal friend.
Craik, Dinah Mulock. The Head of the Family. New, Chapman and Hall, 1878.
dedication
The New York edition was a single volume...
Dedications Harriet Martineau
Elizabeth Barrett Browning denied that she was the unnamed invalid to whom the book was dedicated; according to HM many readers instantly detected the identity of the author.
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Brownings’ Correspondence. Editors Kelley, Philip et al., Wedgestone Press, 1984–2025, 14 vols. to date.
8: xii
Martineau, Harriet, and Gaby Weiner. Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography. Virago, 1983, 2 vols.
2: 171
Education Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
The only daughter in a family of boys, ESP credited her father for her intellectual development: He was my climate. As soon as I began to think, I began to reverence thought and study and...
Education Emily Hickey
She demonstrated an early interest in reading. Scott , Tennyson , and Barrett Browning numbered among her early favourites. Her father, however, did not allow her to read Shakespeare , as he was repelled by...
Education Emily Jane Pfeiffer
Her family's financial troubles prevented EJP from receiving a formal or thorough education. In her own words, education was not within the reach of the gently born who were also poor, therefore I had little...
Education L. M. Montgomery
LMM attended a one-room schoolhouse across the road from her grandparents' farmhouse, completing her time there in 1892. The following year, she went to the Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown for teacher training. Her...
Education Toru Dutt
TD and Aru were briefly enrolled at a boarding school in Nice where they studied French.
Rao, Raja, and Toru Dutt. “Aru and Toru”. Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan, Writers Workshop, 1972.
After moving to England they continued their studies and attended the Higher Lectures for Women series begun by Henry Sidgwick
Education Mrs Alexander
Encouraged to read widely, MA was educated at home by governesses. Years later she said that having no playmates as a child, she steeped herself in books, mostly poetry. This was the best education I...

Timeline

1495: In a bonfire of the vanities in Florence,...

Writing climate item

1495

In a bonfire of the vanities in Florence, Italy, Girolamo Savonarola destroyed texts by Ovid , Dante , Boccaccio and others.
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
319
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Editorial Materials”. Casa Guidi Windows, edited by Julia Markus, Browning Institute, 1977, p. Various pages.
78

: One of the best-known poems of John Skelton,...

Writing climate item

Autumn 1498

One of the best-known poems of John Skelton , The Bowge of Courte, probably dates from this season. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde the following year.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Cooper, Helen. “Skeltonics”. London Review of Books, 14 Dec. 2006, pp. 32-4.
32, 33

27 December 1831: A major slave uprising, the Baptist War,...

National or international item

27 December 1831

A major slave uprising, the Baptist War, Christmas Rebellion, or Great Jamaican Slave Revolt, began with the setting afire of the Kensington Estate. Over the next two weeks it spread to several more parishes, causing...

20 March 1839: The Anti-Corn Law League was founded....

National or international item

20 March 1839

The Anti-Corn Law League was founded.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
29
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1836-1854. Editors Raymond, Meredith B. and Mary Rose Sullivan, Armstrong Browning Library at Baylor University, 1983, 3 vols.
3: 73, 80
Royle, Edward. Chartism. Longman, 1980.
127

1845: William Edmonstoune Aytoun and Theodore Martin...

Writing climate item

1845

William Edmonstoune Aytoun and Theodore Martin published the satirical A Book of Ballads, as edited by Bon Gaultier.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

11 October 1845: A translated edition of Emanuel Swedenborg's...

Building item

11 October 1845

A translated edition of Emanuel Swedenborg 's work The Principia was published in London; this form of spiritualism soon became popular in elite intellectual circles.
Owen, Alex. The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Nineteenth-Century England. Virago, 1989.
21
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
937 (11 October 1845)

19 November 1845: Edgar Allan Poe published The Raven and Other...

Writing climate item

19 November 1845

Edgar Allan Poe published The Raven and Other Poems.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Thomas, Dwight, and David Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. G. K. Hall, 1987.
496, 531, 591

9 April 1855: American Daniel Dunglas Home arrived in England...

Building item

9 April 1855

American Daniel Dunglas Home arrived in England as a self-proclaimed spiritualist missionary.
Porter, Katherine H. Through a Glass Darkly: Spiritualism in the Browning Circle. Octagon, 1972.
3-4, 115

December 1855: Barbara Leigh Smith, later Bodichon, founded...

National or international item

December 1855

Barbara Leigh Smith , later Bodichon, founded the Married Women's Property Committee (sometimes called the Women's Committee) to draw up a petition for a married women's property bill.
Herstein, Sheila R. A Mid-Victorian Feminist: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. Yale University Press, 1985.
78-9
Shanley, Mary Lyndon. Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England. Princeton University Press, 1989.
32-3
Chedzoy, Alan. A Scandalous Woman: The Story of Caroline Norton. Allison and Busby, 1995.
245-8

14 March 1856: A petition for Reform of the Married Women's...

National or international item

14 March 1856

A petition for Reform of the Married Women's Property Law, organized by the Married Women's Property Committee and signed by many prominent women, was presented to both Houses of Parliament.
Shanley, Mary Lyndon. Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England. Princeton University Press, 1989.
32, 35
Helsinger, Elizabeth K. et al. The Woman Question. Garland, 1983.
2: 14
Dunicliff, Joy. Mary Howitt: Another Lost Victorian Writer. Excalibur Press of London, 1992.
208
Karl, Frederick R. George Eliot: Voice of a Century. W.W. Norton, 1995.
214

16 April 1860: King Victor Emmanuel II made his triumphal...

National or international item

16 April 1860

King Victor Emmanuel II made his triumphal entry into Florence.
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
110

By 20 October 1860: Faithful for Ever, the third part of Coventry...

Writing climate item

By 20 October 1860

Faithful for Ever, the third part of Coventry Patmore 's poem The Angel in the House, was published.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1410 (1854): 1335
Athenæum. J. Lection.
(1860): 509-10

1861: A company in Salem, Massachusetts, issued...

Writing climate item

1861

A company in Salem, Massachusetts, issued what seems to be the earliest version of a game called Authors, whose object was to collect sets of cards bearing the names of writers and the...

1868: Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered...

Writing climate item

1868

Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered for books connected with her school-teaching career, published Memories of some Contemporary Poets, with Selections from their Writings, with a good representation of women among her subjects (from...

1886: Eva Hope's Queens of Literature of the Victorian...

Women writers item

1886

Eva Hope 's Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era singled out Mary Somerville , Harriet Martineau , Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Charlotte Brontë , George Eliot , and Felicia Hemans .
Hope, Eva. Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era. Walter Scott, 1886.
passim

Texts

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems. James Duncan.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Aurora Leigh. Chapman and Hall, 1857.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Aurora Leigh. Editor Reynolds, Margaret, Ohio University Press, 1992.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, and Cora Kaplan. Aurora Leigh and Other Poems. Women’s Press, 1978.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Casa Guidi Windows. Chapman and Hall, 1851.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Critical Introductions”. The Complete Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, edited by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke, AMS Press, 1973, p. Various pages.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Diary by E.B.B. Editors Kelley, Philip and Ronald Hudson, Ohio University Press, 1969.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Editorial Materials”. Casa Guidi Windows, edited by Julia Markus, Browning Institute, 1977, p. Various pages.
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “Editorial Materials”. The Brownings’ Correspondence, edited by Philip Kelley et al., Wedgestone Press, 1984, p. Various pages.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Elizabeth Barrett to Miss Mitford. Editor Miller, Betty, John Murray, 1954.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Fragment of an ’Essay on Woman’”. Studies in Browning and His Circle, Vol.
12
, pp. 11-12.
Meynell, Alice, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “Introduction”. Prometheus Bound and Other Poems, Ward, Lock and Bowden, 1896, p. v - xv.
Ricks, Christopher et al. “Introduction”. The Brownings: Letters and Poetry, International Collectors Library, 1970, pp. 1-29.
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, 1973, pp. xi - xxiv; 175.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Last Poems. Editor Browning, Robert, Chapman and Hall, 1862.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, and Richard Hengist Horne. Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, addressed to Richard Hengist Horne. Editor Mayer, S. R. Townshend, R. Bentley, 1877, 2 vols.
Ogilvy, Eliza, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “Memoir”. The Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Frederick Warne, 1893.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “Note”. Aurora Leigh, Smith, Elder, 1898, p. vii - xiv.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Poems. Edward Moxon, 1844, 2 vols.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Poems. New ed., Chapman and Hall, 1850, 2 vols.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Poems Before Congress. Chapman and Hall, 1860.
Æschylus,. Prometheus Bound. Translator Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, A. J. Valpy, 1833.
Ogilvy, Eliza, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “Recollections”. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Letters to Mrs. David Ogilvy, edited by Peter N. Heydon et al., Quadrangle, 1973, p. xxv - xxxv.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Sonnets from the Portuguese”. Poems, New ed., Chapman and Hall, 1850.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. The Battle of Marathon. Printed for W. Lindsell, 1820.