Full Description
This volume in the 21st Century Oxford Authors series offers students and readers a comprehensive selection of the work of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861). Accompanied by full scholarly apparatus, this authoritative edition enables students to study Barrett Browning's work within the rich context of her life and writing career.
The revaluation of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's work by feminist scholars has made her an established author in university syllabuses in Britain and in America. Yet the reception of Barrett Browning as a writer within an explicitly female tradition has tended to limit the appreciation of her wider contribution to English literary culture in the nineteenth century, just as her popular image as a ringleted romantic heroine served sentimentally to eclipse her role as a literary pioneer. This edition complements or corrects these emphases by being the first edition dedicated to witnessing the progress and growth of the poet's creative direction--from her juvenilia through to her major achievements and beyond.
The selection of works presented here appear in the order in which they were originally published, enabling students and readers to experience the contours of Barrett Browning's poetic career. Thus, following selections from published juvenilia, The Battle of Marathon (1820) and 'An Essay on Mind' and Other Poems (1826) and from 'Prometheus Bound' and Miscellaneous Poems (1833), there are more extensive selections from 'The Seraphim' and Other Poems (1838), from Poems 1844 and from Poems 1850 including the full text of Sonnets from the Portuguese. Substantial excerpts from Casa Guidi Windows (1851) is followed by the full text of Aurora Leigh (1857) and by selections from the posthumous Last Poems (1862). These individual sections are supplemented by careful selections (also chronologically ordered) from the correspondence, including the courtship letters with Robert Browning, and, where applicable, from poetry unpublished in the nineteenth century.
Explanatory notes and commentary are included, to enhance the study, understanding, and enjoyment of these works, and the edition includes an Introduction to the life and works of Barrett Browning, and a Chronology.
Contents
Introduction
Chronology
A Note on the Selection and Ordering
Part I: EARLY WORKS AND THE BARRETT FAMILY WRITINGS (1820-33)
From The Battle of Marathon (1820)
From (unpublished) 'Fragment of An Essay on Woman' (1822)
From An Essay on Mind (1826)
To My Father on His Birth-Day (1826)
Song ('Weep as if you thought of laughter') (1826)
Verses to my Brother (1826)
Letter to Hugh Stuart Boyd (1828)
Diary 1831-2
From Preface to translation of Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (1833)
From translation of Prometheus Bound (1833)
A True Dream (1833)
PART II: THE SERAPHIM AND OTHER POEMS (1838), CORRESPONDENCE 1841-5
From Preface
From The Seraphim
From The Poet's Vow
From The Romaunt of Margret
The Deserted Garden
Death of Bro (1840), Letters (1841-45)
SECTION III: POEMS (1844)
Dedication: To My Father
From Preface
Past and Future
Irreparableness
Grief
Tears
Substitution
Work and Contemplation
Letter to John Kenyon
from A Drama of Exile
An Apprehension
To George Sand: A Recognition
The Soul's Expression
from The Lost Bower
The Lady's Yes
The Cry of the Children
Lady Geraldine's Courtship
SECTION IV: The Courtship Correspondence (1845-6)
From the letters of EBB and Robert Browning (January 1845- April 1846
SECTION V: POEMS 1850
Sonnets from the Portuguese
A Denial (1856)
The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point
A Reed
A Sabbath Morning at Sea
A Woman's Shortcomings
A Man's Requirements
The Mask
SECTION VI: CASA GUIDI WINDOWS (1851)
Advertisement to the First Edition
from Part I
from Part II
SECTION VII: AURORA LEIGH (1856)
Dedication
First Book
Second Book
Third Book
Fourth Book
Fifth Book
Sixth Book
Seventh Book
Eighth Book
Ninth Book
SECTION VIII: LAST POEMS (1862)
Bianca Among the Nightingales
Mother and Poet
A Musical Instrument
Lord Walter's Wife
Died
My Heart and I
The Best Thing in the World
NOTES
