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The Poems and Plays of Robert Browning 1833-1864 (2 Volumes) Poetry Verse

The Poems and Plays of Robert Browning 1833-1864 (2 Volumes) Poetry Verse

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The Poems & Plays of Robert Browning

Vol. I: 1833-1844 with Volume II: 1844-1864.

Introduction by Arthur Waugh.

J. M. Dent & Sons, 1911. Two Volumes. Hardback, green cloth, gilt spines, illustrated endpapers, beautifully decorated title page and frontis, 662 + 649 pages.

CONDITION
Both volumes in very good clean condition. The cloth bindings are good and the gilt spines clear and bright. Endpapers good, the first volume has a neat inscription to the front endpaper, pages very clean throughout both volumes. Overall very good.

Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterisation, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax.

Browning's early career began promisingly, but collapsed. The long poems Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835) received some acclaim, but in 1840 the difficult Sordello, which was seen as wilfully obscure, brought his poetry into disrepute. His reputation took more than a decade to recover, during which time he moved away from the Shelleyan forms of his early period and developed a more personal style.

In 1846 Browning married the older poet Elizabeth Barrett and went to live in Italy. By the time of her death in 1861 he had published the crucial collection Men and Women (1855). The collection Dramatis Personae (1864) and the book-length epic poem The Ring and the Book (1868-1869) followed, and made him a leading British poet. He continued to write prolifically, but his reputation today rests largely on the poetry he wrote in this middle period.

When Browning died in 1889, he was regarded as a sage and philosopher-poet who through his writing had made contributions to Victorian social and political discourse. Unusually for a poet, societies for the study of his work formed while he was still alive. Such Browning Societies remained common in Britain and the United States until the early 20th century.




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