Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett ( 1806 – 61 ),eldest of the twelve children of Edward Moulton Barrett , whose wealth was derived from Jamaican plantations; she spent her childhood at Hope End in Herefordshire. Although largely self-educated at home, she learnt much from correspondence with her scholarly neighbours U. Price and Hugh Stuart Boyd , became deeply versed in the classics and in prosodic theory, and later published translations from ancient and Byzantine Greek poetry. In 1832 the Barrett family moved to Sidmouth, and in 1835 to London; in 1838 Elizabeth Barrett, seriously ill as a result of a broken blood-vessel, was sent to Torquay and here, two years later, her eldest brother Edward was drowned, to her lifelong grief. She returned to London, still an invalid, in 1841 . In 1845 Robert Browning began a correspondence with her which led to their meeting and to an engagement, necessarily secret since...
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