Mrs.+Browning's+Poetical+Works

[[image:Feb 2016 061.JPG width="185" height="237" align="left" caption="Portrait of E.B.B dated 1859 in Poetical Works"]]
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**Book Audit: **
 The book “Mrs.Browning’s Complete Poetical Works” was published by Thomas Y. Crowell & Company Publishers (New York) in 1886. This edition is a Complete Edition of all EBB's published poetry and is solely composed of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poetry.

 The book is burgundy with a gold inscription of the title on the top of the spine. On the cover of the book it is stamped with the “Astor Edition” logo. The size of the book is slightly bigger than pocket-size and the pages are clean edge. On the third page there is a portrait of Barrett Browning, dated 1859. Inside, before the table of contents, there is a prefatory note written by Robert Browning 1887 and an advertisement written by Barrett Browning herself in 1856. It also includes a dedication, which is to Barrett Browning’s father, written in 1844. The table of contents is not organized by the date poems were published, but a few of her longer poems, such as //Aurora Leigh// and //A Drama of Exile// dominate almost the whole first half of the book. A combination of narrative, lyric and sonnet poems are included in the book. None of the poems are accompanied by illustrations and there does not appear to be any book traces, or inscriptions, inside. Although there are no obvious book traces, there does seem to have been one at a previous time because in between the second and third page there is a page missed, as it has been ripped out. On the third page there also seems to be evidence of ink that has leaked through from the previous page that was ripped out.

**Historical Information: **
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806 in Durham England. She was the first of 12 children from parents Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham. Barrett Browning spent her childhood and youth at Hope End estate in Herefordshire near Ledbury in England. She was educated in her early childhood by her mother, and at the age of six she started reading novels. When she turned eight, Barrett Browning claims she started reading Pope’s translation of Homer. At approximately the age of 10 she began to study Greek, which led to her writing her own Homeric epic called //The Battle of Marathon// when she was 11. This epic was first published in 1820 by Barrett Browning’s father. Approximately 50 copies were privately printed as a gift for Barrett Browning’s on her 14 birthday.

 In the early stages of her writing Barrett Browning’s mother acted as a publisher for her work. Eventually, Barrett Browning’s father named her ‘Poet Laureate of Hope End’, helping her to compose the largest body of juvenile writing compared to any other English writer. Unfortunately, when Barrett Browning was 14 she severely injured her spine trying to mount her horse by herself. This injury did not stop her from composing poetry though, in 1821 (age 15) she had two poems published in the New Monthly Magazine. From 1824-1826 Barrett Browning engaged in a self-education program to further her knowledge. Two years later, tragically, Barrett Browning’s mother, died. Some critics claim that this loss gave rise to the poem Aurora Leigh, which Barrett Browning claimed to be “the most mature of [her] works”. Throughout the 1830’s her ballads were being published in periodicals and annuals. In 1836 Barrett Browning met William Wordsworth  and a year later began to have symptoms of lung disease. After never fully recovering and becoming dependent on opiates, a year later in 1838, she suffered from another illness in her lungs, which we refer to today as bronchitis or tuberculous ulceration of the lungs. In 1840, seven years before she married Robert Browning , two of her brothers died, including the one she was closest to. From 1847-1849 Barrett Browning experienced having four miscarriages with Robert Browning, but in later half of 1849 (March) she gave birth to their only son Robert Weidemann Barrett Browning , also known as Pen. In 1857 Barrett Browning’s father died without being on good terms with him because he disagreed with her marriage to Robert Browning. Only a couple of years after her father’s death Barrett Browning died on June 26, 1861 in Casa Guidi .

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Context for Book: **
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> “Mrs. Browning’s Complete Poetical Works” can be placed in the topic of sonnets. The book contains approximately 45 sonnets from Barrett Browning not including all the //Sonnets from the Portuguese//, which contains 44 sonnets. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a sonnet is “a piece of verse (properly expressive of one main idea) consisting of fourteen decasyllabic lines, with rhymes arranged according to one or other of certain definite schemes.”

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> This book can also be placed in a topic of Victorian readership. Due to the publication date of “Mrs. Browning’s Complete Poetical Works” being 1886 it seems appropriate to claim that Victorian readers were reading this book, and books like it (that contained a complete works of a poet). It seems relevant to point out that in the back of the book there is a chronological list of Barrett Browning’s works, where the title of the works (poem or book of poem that a specific poem first appeared in) appear beside the date of publication. This seems most likely done as an editorial insertion to provide dates of all the poems because they are not given before or after the poems throughout the book. This list would be helpful for the Victorian readers if they wanted to know when one of her poems in the book was first published because the poems themselves in the book do not contain dates after and are not in chronological order.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The Book as Part of a Victorian Poetry Course:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> “Mrs. Browning’s Complete Poetical Works” would be a great book for a Victorian poetry course if the course primarily focused on the complete works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It would reveal to students the way later Victorian readers would have read Barrett Browning’s work, specifically after she died. It would also places her individual poems in terms of her writer overture.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Analysis/ Description of Poems: **
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 1.5;">In order to fit all of Barrett Browning’s poems into one book the publisher has put two columns on each page. This causes each poem to look cramped and almost run directly into the next poem. There are little separations in between some poems, including a title or a line, to show that a poem has ended, but still the poems seem to lack a sort of individuality to them due to the layout. Despite the book being great because it contains a complete works and a chronological list of all Barrett Browning’s works at the end, the layout seems to be a downfall for the book as a whole and makes the poems difficult to read or stay focused on one at a time. This could suggest that the book is a compact and economical edition, which the Victorian readers were used to during this era.

AG.Engl386.UVic.Winter2016

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">References: **
Barrett Browning, Elizabeth. "//Mrs. Browning's Complete Poetical Works".// New York: T.Y Crowell & Company, 1886. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"sonnet, n." //OED Online//. Oxford University Press, December 2015. Web. 10 February 2016.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Stone, Marjorie. “Browning, Elizabeth Barrett (1806–1861).” //Oxford// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">//Dictionary of National Biography//. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oct. 2008. 10 Feb. 2016 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/view/article/3711>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The Revd Canon Stephen Evans. //The Browning Society//. 2009. Yellow Creative Ltd. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">10 Feb. 2016. []