The year 1845 finds the Moulton Barrett family of London tight in the grip of a tyrannical father. His invalid daughter Elizabeth is gaining a brilliant reputation as a writer. Her verses reach Robert Browning who falls in love with her before they have ever met. Browning sweeps into Elizabeth's life with the invigorating force of a sea breeze and her father senses that his absolute authority is in danger. Tension mounts as Edward Moulton Barrett and Robert Browning engage in a struggle for Elizabeth's life and happiness. A big hit in London's West End.10 women, 30 men
A Riveting and brilliant work of biography. The story of two great English poets, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, whose work was immediately recognized and adored by their contemporaries, whose courtship ranks with the great love stories of all time -- and in whose marriage romance was not merely sustained but intensified. We enter their story through the sealed Victorian world of the Barretts of Wimpole Street: Elizabeth, at thirty-nine, a poet of international fame, a child prodigy who had grown to be a middle-aged spinster, a woman for whom romantic love seemed not to be possible, confined by illness, morphine, and the tyranny of her father, scion of rich Jamaican slaveholders, rum and sugar traders. It is to this fortress that Robert Browning, already an admired young poet and playwright, already a devotee of Elizabeth's, lays siege. ("I love your verses," he had written Elizabeth in his first letter to her, long before they met. "I love your verses with all my heart -- and I love you too.") And miraculously Elizabeth let life in. Julia Markus chronicles their extraordinary courtship, their marriage in secret (Browning to Elizabeth: "How you have dared and done all this ... for my only sake?"), and their radiant honeymoon in Italy. Markus shows us how the political events of the times inspired the great dramatic monologues of Robert's middle years and how Italy's stormy reunification inspired Elizabeth's later work. We come to see Elizabeth as an artist with a fierce and final confidence in poetry and its effect on the poets' lives. We see husband and wife celebrate the birth of their son, Robert Wiedemann "Pen" Barrett Browning (Browning to her sisters: "I sate by [Elizabeth] as much as I was allowed, and I shall never forget what I saw, tho' I cannot speak about it"). We see them among their artist/writer friends: in London with Tennyson, Thackeray, Rossetti, and others; in Rome with William Story, the American lawyer, poet, sculptor; with Harriet Hosmer, the stonecutter, who was one of the models for Aurora Leigh; with Charlotte Cushman, the American actress, who held readings of Elizabeth's novel in verse. We see Elizabeth in Paris meeting her heroine George Sand, whose society of socialists and theatrical types Robert described as "ragged Red." We come to understand Elizabeth's dependence on the ever-present drug in her life ("I should not be alive except by help of my morphine") and her constant battle with depression. And we see Elizabeth, encouraged by a woman with whom she was infatuated, move from interest to obsession with spiritualism, a cause that became the only source of serious dissension between the Brownings. We follow the course of their rich marriage, from the beginning when each saw the other as a brilliant poet, a compassionate and strangely similar heart, through the years in which they discovered each other's differences, each remaining a complex and thrilling human being to the other. To tell their story, Markus for the first time makes use of much of Elizabeth's unpublished correspondence, amid a wealth of other documents. She delves fully into the Brownings' Creole background and shows how it affected their lives and their work (Elizabeth was the first of the Jamaican Barretts to be born in England in many generations). Brilliantly interweaving the Brownings' own words with her authentic and perceptive narrative, Julia Markus brings these two great poets -- their marriage, their work, their times -- alive as never before.
Finalist for the 2022 Plutarch Award Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography A Washington Post Best Book of 2021 “An elegant act of rehabilitation.”—New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice A "nuanced and insightful" (New Statesman) portrait of Britain’s most famous female poet, a woman who invented herself and defied her times. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." With these words, Elizabeth Barrett Browning has come down to us as a romantic heroine, a recluse controlled by a domineering father and often overshadowed by her husband, Robert Browning. But behind the melodrama lies a thoroughly modern figure whose extraordinary life is an electrifying study in self-invention. Born in 1806, Barrett Browning lived in an age when women could not attend a university, own property after marriage, or vote. And yet she seized control of her private income, defied chronic illness and disability, became an advocate for the revolutionary Italy to which she eloped, and changed the course of cultural history. Her late-in-life verse novel masterpiece, Aurora Leigh, reveals both the brilliance and originality of her mind, as well as the challenges of being a woman writer in the Victorian era. A feminist icon, high-profile activist for the abolition of slavery, and international literary superstar, Barrett Browning inspired writers as diverse as Emily Dickinson, George Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf. Two-Way Mirror is the first biography of Barrett Browning in more than three decades. With unique access to the poet’s abundant correspondence, “astute, thoughtful, and wide-ranging guide” (Times [UK]) Fiona Sampson holds up a mirror to the woman, her art, and the art of biography itself.
First published in 2003, this book examines the creative partnership of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, and provides a critical analysis of the poems written by this famous couple during the 16 year period of their friendship, courtship and marriage. Even quite early in their relationship, the Brownings shared a frame of reference: similar themes, narrative structures, and details of phrasing resonate in their works and suggest dialogue, rather than merely mutual influence. Pollock traces parallels between the Brownings' lives and works even before they met, and then throughout their courtship and married life, suggesting that their creative dialogue continued after Barrett Browning died in 1861, as her presence and themes continued to inform Browning's poetry for at least a decade afterward.
Elizabeth and Ivy is the fascinating memoir and collection of letters from Robert Liddell. Liddell met both Ivy Compton-Burnett and Elizabeth Taylor (the writer) only several times: nevertheless a close, three-way friendship developed which is absorbingly chronicled here. Introduced by Francis King.
'There are a few rare occasions in life, when events seem to conspire in a profound and extraordinary way. In those moments God pulls back the curtain on his plans and you get to see a glimpse of what he has in store in you. In the end you are clearer on your life's purpose and destiny. This was one of those moments.' AS MANY AS THE STARS tells the story of how one man moved with his wife and six young children from the UK to China to follow God's call. Robert Glover was a social worker in the East of England who went on to radically transform Chinese government's policy on care welfare. In conversations with the Chinese government Robert fought to show that family-based fostering and adoption was a better alternative to the system of state-sponsored orphanages. In 1998, Robert pioneered the first small pilot project in Shanghai. In the same year Care for Children was founded as a charity as the first joint venture social welfare project between the British and Chinese governments. The goal was to provide skills and knowledge to local staff that could eventually impact many thousands of orphans in China. Robert had a big vision but continued to trust God in his plans. Now Robert's charity Care for Children has reached their goal of getting ONE MILLION children fostered or adopted, which is 85% of the children in the state-run institutions and they have since expanded into Thailand and Vietnam. Told with humour & simplicity AS MANY AS THE STARS gives a deeper understanding of the importance of families in God's plan; God's deep concern for the plight of the orphan and the poor; how to live with greater compassion, generosity and courage to share the love of Christ with a needy world.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning: Interviews and Recollections gathers accounts of the two poets from her precocious childhood to his death in Venice. Comments by Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne, Alfred Tennyson, Henry James, Edmund Gosse and the Brownings themselves are included together with the reports or recollections of many less well known contemporaries. There is material on Barrett Browning's relationship with her father, her spiritualism, appearance, ambitions and convictions as a poet, and `devotion to and faith in the regeneration of Italy'; and on Browning's early friendship with Carlyle, his fraught relationship with Macready and the theatre, his love of fine clothes and society, and work habits. Some contemporary accounts construct, while others reject or qualify, familiar images of the poets: Barrett Browning as the frail, safely female recluse, for instance, or Browning as the loud and trivial talker who was so different from his poetry that for James there were simply `two Brownings'.
PREFACE. THE Author of this very practical treatise on Scotch Loch - Fishing desires clearly that it may be of use to all who had it. He does not pretend to have written anything new, but to have attempted to put what he has to say in as readable a form as possible. Everything in the way of the history and habits of fish has been studiously avoided, and technicalities have been used as sparingly as possible. The writing of this book has afforded him pleasure in his leisure moments, and that pleasure would be much increased if he knew that the perusal of it would create any bond of sympathy between himself and the angling community in general. This section is interleaved with blank shects for the readers notes. The Author need hardly say that any suggestions addressed to the case of the publishers, will meet with consideration in a future edition. We do not pretend to write or enlarge upon a new subject. Much has been said and written-and well said and written too on the art of fishing but loch-fishing has been rather looked upon as a second-rate performance, and to dispel this idea is one of the objects for which this present treatise has been written. Far be it from us to say anything against fishing, lawfully practised in any form but many pent up in our large towns will bear us out when me say that, on the whole, a days loch-fishing is the most convenient. One great matter is, that the loch-fisher is depend- ent on nothing but enough wind to curl the water, -and on a large loch it is very seldom that a dead calm prevails all day, -and can make his arrangements for a day, weeks beforehand whereas the stream- fisher is dependent for a good take on the state of the water and however pleasant and easy it may be for one living near the banks of a good trout stream or river, it is quite another matter to arrange for a days river-fishing, if one is looking forward to a holiday at a date some weeks ahead. Providence may favour the expectant angler with a good day, and the water in order but experience has taught most of us that the good days are in the minority, and that, as is the case with our rapid running streams, -such as many of our northern streams are, -the water is either too large or too small, unless, as previously remarked, you live near at hand, and can catch it at its best. A common belief in regard to loch-fishing is, that the tyro and the experienced angler have nearly the same chance in fishing, -the one from the stern and the other from the bow of the same boat. Of all the absurd beliefs as to loch-fishing, this is one of the most absurd. Try it. Give the tyro either end of the boat he likes give him a cast of ally flies he may fancy, or even a cast similar to those which a crack may be using and if he catches one for every three the other has, he may consider himself very lucky. Of course there are lochs where the fish are not abundant, and a beginner may come across as many as an older fisher but we speak of lochs where there are fish to be caught, and where each has a fair chance. Again, it is said that the boatman has as much to do with catching trout in a loch as the angler. Well, we dont deny that. In an untried loch it is necessary to have the guidance of a good boatman but the same argument holds good as to stream-fishing...
Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory, this is the wonderfully atmospheric, enthralling and vivid depiction of Elizabeth I's ardent and emotional love affair with Robert Dudley from international multi-million copy bestseller Jean Plaidy. 'Full-blooded, dramatic, exciting' -- Observer 'Outstanding' -- Vanity Fair 'It is hard to better Jean Plaidy when she is in form' -- Daily Mirror 'I couldn't put it down' -- ***** Reader review 'A compelling read' -- ***** Reader review 'I was gripped from the first page' -- ***** Reader review ************************************************************************************ In the grim recesses of the Tower of London, two captives begin a passionate love affair that will last years but is destined to destroy them; one is Robert Dudley, the other is the future Queen of England, Elizabeth I. Pardoned by Queen Mary, Dudley and Elizabeth are freed, but their mutual longing must be from a distance: Dudley is married, and as the next heir to the throne, Elizabeth must tread carefully...
