Aurora Leigh Criticism
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh stands as a cornerstone of Victorian literature, heralded for its innovative blend of epic poetry, autobiographical elements, and novelistic narrative. This ambitious work, consisting of 11,000 lines of blank verse, follows the life of its protagonist, Aurora Leigh, as she navigates the tensions between personal ambition and societal expectations while pursuing her vocation as a poet. The poem's narrative structure intertwines Aurora's journey from childhood in Italy to her adulthood in England with the story of her cousin, Romney Leigh, and the compelling character of Marian Erle, through whom themes of class and social justice are vividly explored. Aurora Leigh: Epic Solutions to Novel Ends highlights the poem’s use of epic conventions to elevate its narrative and explore these complex themes.
Initially met with mixed reactions, Aurora Leigh was criticized by figures such as Henry Fothergill Chorley and W.C. Roscoe for its perceived verbosity and plot weaknesses, yet praised by others like George Eliot for its emotive depth. As noted in ‘My Broken Tale’: Gender and Narration in Aurora Leigh, the poem’s dual nature as a love story and a Künstlerroman critiques Victorian gender roles, a theme that resonated with 20th-century feminist critics such as Kathleen K. Hickok and Dorothy Mermin.
The poem’s exploration of the intersection between personal and artistic identity is further exemplified by its novel-in-verse format, which Coventry Patmore acknowledges as a pioneering approach to narrative poetry. Aurora Leigh also interrogates the societal constraints on women, using characters like Marian Erle to address issues of poverty and transgression, as discussed in Rape, Transgression, and the Law: The Body of Marian Erle. Browning's innovative genre fusion and feminist insights have secured the poem a lasting place in literary history, prompting modern scholars to examine closely how it challenges both social and literary norms, as seen in Aurora Leigh as Paradigm of Domestic-Professional Fiction.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism)
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Criticism
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Review of Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In this review, Chorley praises Browning's style and intent but claims that the plot of Aurora Leigh is "in its argument unnatural, and in its form infelicitous."
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Mrs. Browning's Poems
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Patmore gives a mixed review of Aurora Leigh, summarizing the 'novel in verse' and assessing the poetic imagery as it advances Browning's opinions on life and art.
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Mrs. Barrett Browning—Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Aytoun summarizes the plot of Aurora Leigh and gives it a mixed assessment; he criticizes some of the book's themes while admiring Browning's poetic style.
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Review of Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Eliot praises Aurora Leigh's emotive power, claiming that it is Browning's infusion of "genuine thought and feeling" that distinguishes the work from those of her contemporaries.
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Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Roscoe claims that Aurora Leigh shows great poetic promise, but faults its excessive length, finding the work filled with unnecessary detail and its characters vague and indistinct.
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(summary)
In the excerpt that follows, Everett finds fault with several stylistic elements of Aurora Leigh, but finds that it succeeds primarily as a spiritual autobiography, tracing, as it does, the development and maturation of a woman and a poet.
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A Prefatory Note to Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Swinburne recalls his first reading of Aurora Leigh, and claims that the book pays adequate tribute to the genius of its author.
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E. B. Browning: Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Shackford discusses Aurora Leigh in the context of Browning's other works and her literary interests, as well as in relation to other narrative poems.
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The Aesthetics of Renunciation
(summary)
In the excerpt that follows, Gilbert and Gubar claim that Aurora Leigh may well have been the most reasonable compromise between assertion and submission that a sane and worldly woman poet could achieve in the nineteenth century.
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New Yet Orthodox: Female Characters in Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Hickok explores Browning's feminist inversion of conventional literary and social norms in Aurora Leigh.
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Aurora Leigh: The Vocation of the Woman Poet
(summary)
In the essay that follows, Gelpi sees Aurora Leigh as a metaphorical investigation of Browning's changing attitudes toward herself, her profession, and womanhood in general.
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Genre and Gender in Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In this essay, Mermin contends that Aurora Leigh transgresses the distinction between poetry and fiction, and between males and females, claiming that the "novel in verse" ends with an assertion of the primacy of poetry's world and values over the novel's, and of women over men.
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If orphaned, we are disinherited: The Making of the Poet
(summary)
In the following essay, Leighton claims that in Aurora Leigh Browning traces the liberation of her own creative abilities through Aurora's 'failed quest' for her father and her subsequent acceptance of her 'disinherited state.'
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An introduction to Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Reynolds discusses the politics and literary influences that shaped Browning's Aurora Leigh. She also summarizes the poem and discusses its approach to issues of femininity.
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Review of Aurora Leigh
(summary)
- Secondary Sources:
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Criticism
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Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Poetry Criticism)
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Aurora Leigh: Epic Solutions to Novel Ends
(summary)
In the following essay, Tucker examines the “epicizing conventions” in Aurora Leigh, discussing principles of structure, narrative technique, and the dichotomy between the human and the divine.
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Glad Rags for Lady Godiva: Woman's Story as Womanstance in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Egan describes Aurora Leigh in terms of its novelistic and poetic qualities, and highlights Barrett Browning's use of Lady Godiva and Danae as feminist figures.
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‘And God will teach her’: Consciousness and Character in Ruth and Aurora Leigh.
(summary)
In the following essay, Gottlieb compares Aurora Leigh with Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth, illuminating contrasting notions of feminine identity in the characters of Marian and Ruth.
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Paradise Lost and Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Brown analyzes the thematic complexities of Aurora Leigh within biblical and Miltonic frameworks.
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‘Nor in Fading Silks Compose’: Sewing, Walking, and Poetic Labor in Aurora Leigh.
(summary)
In the following essay, Wallace explores themes of gender, labor, and writing in Aurora Leigh, linking these motifs with the georgic and peripatetic literary genres.
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Anomalous Ownership: Copyright, Coverture, and Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Hoeckley documents debates over issues of marital property and copyright in Victorian England, highlighting their impact on Barrett Browning and her characterization of Aurora Leigh.
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Enlarging the Heart: L. E. L.'s ‘The Improvisatrice,’ Hemans's ‘Properzia Rossi,’ and Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh.
(summary)
In the following essay, Louis underscores connections between Aurora Leigh and the sentimental literary tradition popularized by poets Letitia Elizabeth Landon and Felicia Hemans.
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Challenging Traditionalist Gender Roles: The Exotic Woman as Critical Observer in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Thum considers Barrett Browning's critique of gender roles in British society as presented through Aurora Leigh's outsider perspective.
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‘My Broken Tale’: Gender and Narration in Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Case probes Aurora Leigh's conflicting role as the heroine-narrator of both a conventional love story and a Künstlerroman.
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‘For My Better Self’: Auto/biographies of the Poetess, the Prelude of the Poet Laureate, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh.
(summary)
In the following essay, Peterson treats Aurora Leigh as an autobiography, emphasizing the literary influences of Wordsworth's Prelude and Letitia Elizabeth Landon's biographical sketches.
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Aurora Leigh as Paradigm of Domestic-Professional Fiction
(summary)
In the following essay, Schatz suggests that Barrett Browning created Aurora Leigh as a role model for Victorian women and a figure of feminine strength, demonstrating that a woman could contribute to both the professional and domestic realms.
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Resurrecting the Living Dead: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Poetic Vision in Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Renk illuminates Barrett Browning's interest in the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, drawing parallels between Swedenborg's philosophy and Aurora Leigh's spiritual views.
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Aurora Leigh and the Pure Milk of the Word
(summary)
In the following essay, published for the first time in 2002, Montefiore examines images of God and the use of the female body as metaphor in Aurora Leigh.
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Rape, Transgression, and the Law: The Body of Marian Erle in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh
(summary)
In the following essay, Lawson and Shakinovsky focus on notions of psychological development, violence, and class in Aurora Leigh as represented through the character of Marian Erle.
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Aurora Leigh: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Novel Approach to the Woman Poet
(summary)
In the following essay, Tasker addresses Barrett Browning's contribution to the verse-novel genre in Victorian literature.
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Aurora Leigh: Epic Solutions to Novel Ends
(summary)
- Further Reading