The Brownings' Correspondence: Volumes 28-30

FAIN: RQ-255697-17

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

Project director Philip Kelley and co-project director Edward Hagan are editing and preparing for print and digital publication Volumes 28-30 of the letters of prominent English writers Robert Browning (1812-1889) and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861). (36 months)

The letters of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, scattered in 383 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, thus making them accessible to a modern audience. This application requests three-year funding to edit volumes 28-30, October 1860-December 1864. During this time, correspondents discuss various political, social, and cultural topics and personalities, including Italian unification, the U.S Civil War, art, music, literature, religion, Tennyson, George Eliot, and Garibaldi. The primary focus, however, is EBB's death and its effect on her husband and son. RB publishes his wife's Last Poems and his own Dramatis Personae; the latter marks a turning point in his popularity.

Associated Products

The Brownings Correspondence Vol. 25-27 (Web Resource)
Title: The Brownings Correspondence Vol. 25-27
Author: Philip Kelley
Abstract: Online Edition of The Brownings’ Correspondence was not a consideration in 1984 when the first two volumes of the Print Edition were published. Fortunately, the text of all the correspondence was captured electronically, and by additional encoding the documents can be offered to readers online. Cross references in the annotations can, for the most part, be located by the search capabilities. At this time, illustrations from the Print Edition are not being displayed.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.browningscorrespondence.com

The Brownings' Correspondence, vol. 26 (Book)
Title: The Brownings' Correspondence, vol. 26
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Author: Robert Browning
Editor: Edward Hagan
Editor: Philip Kelley
Abstract: Volume 26 sees the Brownings continue their winter residence at Rome. In January, they along with the majority of Italians are encouraged by indications that France and Piedmont plan to form an alliance to rid Italy of her Austrian overlords. Three months later, the second war of Italian independence begins when Austrian forces invade Piedmont. The Brownings return to Florence on 1 June and rejoice at French and Italian victories at Magenta and Solferino. Then, with the Austrians in retreat, the emperors of France and Austria sign an armistice at Villafranca on 11 July. EBB is devastated by the news and becomes dangerously ill. At the end of July, the Brownings remove to a villa outside Siena, where EBB convalesces slowly. Also staying in Siena is the aged poet Walter Savage Landor. Earlier in the month, RB had found him wandering the streets of Florence after leaving his home and family. With the approval of Landor’s relatives in England, RB takes on the guardianship of the old man. A transcript of RB’s accounts of Landor’s income and expenditures from 1859 to 1864 is presented as Appendix IV. While at Siena, EBB seems to cool towards her friend Sophia Eckley for reasons that are not made clear. EBB publishes two works in the course of volume 26: the revised fourth edition of Aurora Leigh on 1 June and “A Tale of Villafranca” in The Athenæum on 24 September. The Brownings sat for a number of portraits during the first half of 1859; all are reproduced in this volume, including those by Field Talfourd, Michele Gordigiani, and Frederic Leighton.
Year: 2019
Access Model: Subscription
Publisher: Wedgestone Press
Type: Multi-author monograph
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780911459432
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Brownings' Correspondence, vol. 27 (Book)
Title: The Brownings' Correspondence, vol. 27
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Author: Robert Browning
Editor: Edward Hagan
Editor: Philip Kelley
Abstract: Volume 27 opens in October 1859 with the Brownings just returned to Florence after a summer in Siena. They spend less than two months at Casa Guidi before travelling to Rome, where they occupy rooms at 28 Via del Tritone. On 12 March 1860, EBB’s Poems Before Congress is published; the American edition, Napoleon III in Italy, follows a month later. This small collection of eight poems receives harsh criticism from a number of London journals and newspapers, mainly for her devotion to Napoleon III. The notice in The Athenæum, written by the Brownings’ friend H.F. Chorley, enrages RB for its dismissive nature and mistake about the poem “A Curse for a Nation,” a condemnation of slavery in America. Chorley, among many other reviewers, presume the “curse” is for England rather than America. Appendix III presents all reviews of the book located for this period. Meanwhile, through the winter EBB speculates about the future of Italian independence. In March plebiscites are held in Tuscany and Emilia (the latter formed out of Parma, Modena, and the Papal State of Romagna) that return overwhelming majorities for union with Piedmont under King Victor Emmanuel II. As the volume closes, Garibaldi and his famousThousand have diembarked from Genoa and are preparing to land in Sicily.
Year: 2020
Access Model: Subscription
Publisher: Wedgestone Press
Type: Multi-author monograph
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780911459449
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Brownings' Correspondence, vol. 29 (Book)
Title: The Brownings' Correspondence, vol. 29
Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Author: Robert Browning
Editor: Philip Kelley
Editor: Edward Hagan
Abstract: Volume 29 begins with the Brownings in their winter residence at Rome. EBB stays indoors and will not leave their apartment until April and then only to take “some three or four little drives,” RB later tells his sister, Sarianna. The Independent (New York) publishes three more poems by EBB: “Parting Lovers” (21 March), “Mother and Poet” (2 May), and “Only a Curl” (16 May). On June 1st, the Brownings leave Rome for Florence, arriving at Casa Guidi on the 5th. The following day news comes that Camillo di Cavour, the Italian prime minister, is dead. It is a blow to EBB and the final straw for her health. Two weeks later she develops a sore throat and spends two sleepless nights coughing. On the morning of June 29th, she dies in her husband’s arms. She is buried in the Protestant Cemetery, just outside the walls of Florence. A devastated RB spends the next month putting their affairs in order. He, Pen, and Isa Blagden depart Florence on August 1st. They travel to Paris and stay with RB’s father and sister, Isa moving on to England. The Brownings take a holiday on the northern coast of Brittany, where RB finds solace in opening his heart on long walks with Sarianna. Towards the end of September, all return to Paris, widower and son stopping briefly before crossing the channel to England. They reside for a time with Arabella Moulton-Barrett, then take rooms nearby at 1 Chichester Road. As volume 29 closes, RB worries about Pen’s education, while editing EBB’s Last Poems (1862).
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.wedgestonepress.com/store/the-brownings-correspondence/the-brownings-correspondence-volume-29/35/
Primary URL Description: Wedgewood Press The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 29
Publisher: Wedgewood Press
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 978-0-911459-4
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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