Reviews

E561220A.  Aurora Leigh (New York, 1857).

Christian Inquirer, 20 December 1856, p. 2.

As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 324.

This is the poem of this generation—the greatest poem, we think, and so the greatest literary work yet achieved by a woman. As we read it, we can scarcely believe that it was written by a woman, so charged is it with masculine powers, so replete with the genius that is neither masculine nor feminine.

“Aurora Leigh” is cast in the form of an autobiography, and as such alone is interesting and engaging. But on the slender thread of the narrative are strung the purest pearls of thought. Criticisms on men, manners, society, institutions, art, literature, character, crowd every page. The learning of the book is wonderful, but not so wonderful as the insight into things spiritual. The imagery is original and splendid, and yet it but feebly expresses the writer’s thorough mastery of the correspondence which exists between the world of ideas and the world of things. Mrs. Browning’s command of language is supreme; her words are pictures—more than that, they are objects; and this poem, more than any previous one from her pen, in the mere art of expression, is a marvel, and a perpetual study. As her most mature and elaborate work, the poem will crown the reputation of the poetess, and, we think, will bring to the knowledge of her treasures many who have hitherto been repelled from her writings by the harshness and obscurity of their style. “Aurora Leigh” is simple and, we venture to say, can be understood and enjoyed by every lover of genuine poetry.

Reviewed:

Aurora Leigh (EBB), New York: C.S. Francis & Co., 1857.

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