Description: This volume in the 21st Century Oxford Authors series offers students an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861). The edition presents Barrett Browning's most celebrated works alongside lesser-known texts, and includes an Introduction, Chronology, and full commentary notes.
Review Quotes:
"There are a number of strengths to the volume, particularly in relation to teaching. The opening piece is a spirited essay by the fourteen-year-old Barrett, which is an excellent introduction to the precocious and vivacious young poet (again helping to counteract her somewhat mournful image)...there is a useful selection of letters providing a measure of context for Barrett Browning's poetry...manuscripts...may be useful in engaging students' interest in manuscripts and could be used to point them towards more comprehensive manuscript resources, such as the Armstrong Browning Library's digi- tal collection of the Browning letters. The prefaces and dedications are included, which reveal how Barrett Browning works to position herself as a poet in relation to the public. These are particularly interesting in relation to qualities which were supposed to characterize the poetess, such as modesty." --Clara Dawson, Notes and Queries
"This volume is a comprehensive new edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry that will prove indispensable for students and established scholars alike. The book provides a thorough summary of Barrett Browning's literary achievements, together with useful biographical details. The edition is balanced in the sense that space and attention are given to Barrett Browning's early work and juvenilia...this valuable edition also offers a broad view of her literary achievements, enabling us to perceive how her poetic skill and thematic concerns developed from the earliest stages of her career, through her marriage to Robert Browning, up until her death in 1861...This volume is certain to enrich scholarship on Barrett Browning by offering an expanded view of the career and concerns of this truly great Victorian poet." --Sarah Parker, The Modern Language Review