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.
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
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.
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.
169-70
Friends, Associates
Harriet Martineau
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
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
Friends, Associates
Mary Howitt
MH
's friendship with Elizabeth Barrett Browning
came to an end; her biography blames this on the mutual coldness of their respective husbands.
Robert Browning
was alienated on hearing stories that William took surreptitious notes...
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.
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.