Robert Browning

Abstract

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• Robert Browning
• Suzanne Bailey (bio)

Romantic legacies, Browning and Orientalism, Browning’s language and poetic practice, gender, and materialist approaches to Browning’s poetry are some of the themes that emerge in publications on Browning this year. A new book on the Brownings and the Shelleys by Reiko Suzuki suggests a novel perspective on Browning’s relationship to Romanticism, arguing for the underexamined influence of Mary Shelley’s writing. Among her explorations, Suzuki makes the [End Page 353] intriguing suggestion that Paracelsus (1835) can be read along with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). François Crampe explores mesmerism as a trope in Browning’s early poetry, noting that while the poet is skeptical about the practice, mesmerism offers a model for patterns of influence and will in the poetry. Orientalism, race, and culture are considered by Reza Taher-Kermani and Hanan Khaled Al-Jezawi. Taher-Kermani’s work further defines Middle Eastern representations and tropes in Victorian poetry, highlighting an under-examined dimension to Browning’s work.

The enduring interest of Browning’s metrical experiments is suggested in Kristin Hanson and Nigel Fabb’s analysis of meter in “Pietro of Abano” (1880) in the Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America. Hanson and Fabb propose new ways of modeling Browning’s prosody in the context of linear and generative theories of meter. Ewan Jones and Michael Rizq explore Browning’s language in their respective readings of Fifine at the Fair (1872) and The Ring and the Book (1868–1869). Jones traces the meanings of the arabesque in art history and in Browning’s poetic practice, while Rizq connects syntax and sound in The Ring and the Book to the poem’s interpretive challenges. Patrick Fessenbecker makes the case for the importance of content as much as aesthetic form in communicating ideas in literary works, using Browning’s irony as a test case and drawing attention to the Victorian interest in conveying truth as a value in literature. Both Heather Hind and Jill Rappoport take gender-based and materialist approaches to Browning’s poetry: Hind considers historical practices connected to the harvesting of hair as an artifact in “Gold Hair, A Story of Pornic” (1864) and Rappoport considers gold in The Ring and the Book (1868–1869) in the context of married women’s economic agency and the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870.

Briefer references to Browning document his creative impact on other authors. We see, for instance, how “My Last Duchess” (1842) has been reworked by writers from Edith Wharton to Henry James, or how “The Lost Leader” (1845) has been taken up by Robert Frost. In one of the most intriguing examples, Timothy Hampton notes that Nobel laureate for literature, Bob Dylan, played with lines from Browning’s poetry in his song lyrics. As punning and wordplay are practiced both by Dylan and Browning, this connection would be interesting to pursue.

Finally, volume 29 of the Brownings’ Correspondence is notable for letters in which we see Browning’s early processing of the death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Researchers interested in the study of grief and grieving will find striking passages here that merit further exploration, in addition to material on Browning’s personality. [End Page 354]

The Brownings’ Correspondence

Volume 29 of The Brownings’ Correspondence (Philip Kelley and Edward Hagen, eds. [Winfield, Kans.: Wedgestone Press, 2023]) records a tragic year (February–November 1861) that saw the death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning on June 29, 1861. The volume opens with Barrett Browning’s optimistic letters from February 1861 during a time of political upheaval associated with the battle for Italian unification. Writing from Rome, soon to be declared the capital of Italy in March 1861, Barrett Browning notes the “rage” of the people during this period of turmoil. She quotes Robert Browning, who is equally focused on political events and who asks “the meaning of the attitude of Guizot & others—Said he, ‘It is vexatious to see Napoleon consolidating his power by such means!—He who destroyed liberty in France had not the RIGHT to free Italy’” (p. 1). Barrett Browning notes the present violence in the city, “which makes me a little nervous when Robert is out...