SD1990. Ellen Twisleton to Elizabeth Cabot

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 256 (in part).

[Bowood]

23–27 November [1856]

My darling Bunny–

After having been to church all day, & read considerable besides, it is yet not 6, & there are almost two hours to dinner. …

All day & night I read Mrs Browning’s “Aurora Leigh” until I finished it. It is ponderous to look at, but very light to read—a regular novel, with too complicated a plot to tell you, & you will have it soon, also. You will appreciate it fully, but I defy anybody to enter into its merits as I do, who has not brought, like me, a thoro’ly un-English nature to live in England. Mrs Browning has thrown down the glove to her native land pretty boldly—and it also shows her, as she is, the woman, & the most married woman that lives. …

Edward has just rushed in to tell me that Mrs Browning has made Chimborazo “outsoar” the Himmalaya, whereas it is “just the other way, & the Himmalaya is the highest.”!! …

Edward is assiduously reading Aurora Leigh, thinks it very interesting, and well sustained, & that “she has made a great stride in point of execution;” he is very critical about blank verse, & he thinks this very good; but he objects to the word “aspectable,” wh. she will use, still! …

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Harvard University.

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