The Brownings' Correspondence: Volumes 17-19

FAIN: RQ-50245-07

Philip Kelley
Baylor University (Waco, TX 76798-7284)

Preparation of annotation for 408 letters (1851-1853) comprising volumes 17-19 of the correspondence of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 19th-century British poets. (36 months)

The letters of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, scattered in over 300 public and private collections, represent one of the largest and most comprehensive bodies of literary and social commentary on the nineteenth century. The aim of The Brownings' Correspondence, projected to be 40 volumes, is to publish the complete text of all the poets' letters with full annotations, thereby making them accessible to a modern audience. This application requests three-year funding to edit volumes 17 through 19 of the edition, covering the years 1851-1853. During this period, the Brownings and their correspondents discuss a wide range of social, political and cultural subjects including Austrian occupation in Italy, the coup d'etat in France, American slavery, women's rights, and spiritualism. The letters in these volumes also serve to illuminate the work of both poets: RB's introductory essay to the Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1852); EBB's Casa Guidi Windows (1851) and Poems (1853).

Media Coverage

Green bondage (Review)
Author(s): Phelan, Joseph
Publication: Times Literary Supplement
Date: 7/16/2010
URL: http://www.worldcat.org

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Review)
Author(s): Stone, Marjorie
Publication: Victorian Poetry
Date: 9/23/2011
Abstract: Vol. 48:3 (Fall 2010), pp. 360-361. Review essay.
URL: http://www.worldcat.org

Robert Browning (Review)
Author(s): Martens, Britta
Publication: Victorian Poetry
Date: 9/23/2011
Abstract: Vol. 48:3 (Fall 2010), pp. 376-377. Review essay.
URL: http://www.worldcat.org

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Review)
Author(s): Stone, Marjorie
Publication: Victorian Poetry
Date: 7/19/2016
Abstract: Vol. 49:3 (Fall 2011, pp. 357–358. Review Essay.

Robert Browning (Review)
Author(s): Bailey, Susanne
Publication: Victorian Poetry
Date: 7/19/2016
Abstract: Vol. 49:3 (Fall 2011), p. 376. Review Essay

The Brownings’ Correspondence. Volume 18. (Review)
Author(s): Woolford, John
Publication: Journal of Browning Studies
Date: 7/19/2016
Abstract: Vol. 3 (December 2012), pp. 77–80. Review Essay.

Associated Products

The Brownings' Correspondence [vol. 17] (Book)
Title: The Brownings' Correspondence [vol. 17]
Author: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Author: Browning, Robert
Editor: Hagan, Edward
Editor: Kelley, Philip
Editor: Lewis, Scott
Abstract: February 1851–January 1852, Letters 2901–3000 Volume 17 ushers in a period of travel for the Brownings. They spend May in Venice, June in Paris, and then in July they return to England for the first time since their marriage. The pleasure of their visit is diminished, however, when EBB’s father returns all her letters written to him over the last five years, “the seals unbroken.” In September the poets, accompanied by Thomas Carlyle, journey back to Paris. Soon after arriving they meet the French critic Joseph Milsand, who becomes RB’s closest friend. On 2 December, much to EBB’s approval, Louis Napoleon takes absolute control of France with a coup d’état. Letters in January focus on Mary Russell Mitford’s Recollections of a Literary Life, which wounds EBB with its disclosures concerning her eldest brother’s death. Meanwhile, the Brownings continue to work: EBB publishes Casa Guidi Windows in May 1851; in December RB finishes his introductory essay to the Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1852).
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/february-1851-january-1852-letters-2901-3000/oclc/730445004&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Worldcat entry.
Secondary URL: http://www.browningscorrespondence.com/
Secondary URL Description: The Brownings' Correspondence: An Online Edition.
Access Model: Print volume offered for sale; open access available online.
Publisher: Wedgestone Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780911459340
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Brownings' Correspondence [vol. 18] (Book)
Title: The Brownings' Correspondence [vol. 18]
Author: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Author: Browning, Robert
Editor: Hagan, Edward
Editor: Kelley, Philip
Editor: Lewis, Scott
Abstract: February 1852–March 1853, Letters 3001–3173 Volume 18 sees the Brownings continue their winter residence in Paris. In February, by means of Giuseppe Mazzini’s letter of introduction, they call on George Sand. EBB’s letters of this period are filled with detailed descriptions of this first meeting. In early July the Brownings travel to London. Shortly after their arrival they are confronted with newspaper accounts of RB, Sr.’s trial for breach of promise of marriage. Towards the end of summer, the Brownings visit John Ruskin at Denmark Hill and see his collection of Turners. Other literary figures with whom the poets socialize in London include James Russell Lowell, Coventry Patmore, and Samuel Rogers. The Brownings return to Florence in October and settle into their former quiet ways. Though RB finds it “dead & dull” after Paris and London, the change is conducive to writing. Early in 1853 he composes some of the poetry that will appear in Men and Women (1855). Meanwhile, EBB begins to work in earnest at her “poem-novel,” Aurora Leigh (1857), and she is also “deep in the corrections” of a third edition of her Poems (1853).
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/february-1851-january-1852-letters-2901-3000/oclc/730445004&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Worldcat entry.
Secondary URL: http://www.browningscorrespondence.com/
Secondary URL Description: The Brownings' Correspondence: An Online Edition.
Access Model: Print volume offered for sale; open access available online.
Publisher: Wedgestone Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780911459357
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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