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.
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
Bessie Rayner Parkes
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
Sarah Tytler
ST
's career as a writer introduced her to many leading literary figures (especially those of Scots origin) whom she entertainingly describes in Three Generations.
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.
EWW
's early literary activity was rewarded by a visit from an older magazine verse-writer, Helen Manville
. She had a somewhat hostile relationship with another writer, James Whitcomb Riley
, who criticised her for...
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
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
Frances Power Cobbe
FPC
's connections from home gave her introductions into the circles of US and British women living in Italy, including Harriet Hosmer
(who became a close friend). She met Elizabeth Barrett
and Robert Browning
...
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.
423-5
Friends, Associates
Mary Linskill
In these straits she found her friends worse than useless; they had never experienced poverty, far less starvation. Jenny Miles
apparently reproached her with the fact that George Eliot
, Charlotte Yonge
, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Friends, Associates
Matilda Hays
In Italy, MH
socialized with a number of prominent figures including Isa Blagden
, Sara Lippincott
, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
and her husband
. Barrett Browning commented on the house of emancipated women...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Ogilvy
The friendship between EO
and Elizabethran the course of most friendships, vacillating between spirited intimacy and formal disagreement.
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
Barrett Browning always spoke of Ogilvy highly, but even though the friendship between the two...