The poems are ordered chronologically according to their first appearance in book form. Thirteen new poems are included in this edition, with Pauli...
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Dec 20, 2009
Tony
rated it: 
Browning, Robert. DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES. (This ed. 1991). ****. There are a lot of old friends in this collection of Browning’s works. These include “My Last Duchess,” “Love Among the Ruins,” “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” and “Rabbi Ben Ezra.” Add to these the rest of the monologues and an introduction by A. S. Byatt, and you have a comfortable evening of reading. Find a quiet place, since these poems are best read aloud. You don’t want too many people giving you funny looks. Al
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Aug 27, 2007
Jake
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I read him in high school and in college, and while I read only a smattering of his work, two of his poems alone deserve a four star rating. "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess" are both chilling examples of men gone mad.
PL, a disturbing study in psychotic love and necrophilia, has a rhyme and meter that makes the topic all the more unnerving in its simplistic delivery. Browning is a genius in terms of how he unmasks his speaker's madness.
MLD, More...
PL, a disturbing study in psychotic love and necrophilia, has a rhyme and meter that makes the topic all the more unnerving in its simplistic delivery. Browning is a genius in terms of how he unmasks his speaker's madness.
MLD, More...
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Jan 25, 2011
Christine
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I've been disturbingly obsessed with Browning's monologues since I first read them in a British literature survey course. I can't count the number of times I've discussed Porphyria's Lover, nor do I ever fail to read it in a new way; however, I think Fra Lippo Lippi is my favorite. Regardless, this is a great collection. I'd recommend Robert Browning to anyone with a taste for biting social satire and commentary, humor, and the macabre.
Dec 30, 2007
Monica
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Elizabeth Barrett was an outstanding poet in her day. She was considered a superior poet to her husband until after her death when his fame grew. Now she is known for Sonnets from the Portuguese, love poems to her husband. As a young man he was influenced by the romantic poets Byron, Shelly and Keats and collected his first work at age 12. By the time he returned to England after his wife's death his popularity had grown considerably. He was amused by the formation of The Browning Society but e
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Jul 03, 2009
Lynda
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I first read Browning as a teenager because I had read Barretts of Wimpole Street. I really enjoyed his works and as the years went on, I enjoyed them more profoundly.
Sep 18, 2011
Kajah
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I love Browning. After reading Byatt's Possession I took up his poetry and have been delighted by them ever since. He seems to channel other time periods and people in enchanting ways and skimming around his complete works offers up so many pleasantly variegated sensations. The one I read the most is probably "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", which for the present seems ungraspable, urgent, and hauntingly desperate in it's tone. I have the feeling Browning is going to be a wor
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Apr 04, 2009
Thomas
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I love his dramatic lyrics and monologues but his long form dramas tend to overyly florid and clunky. Mainly because he was more concerned with lyrical style than coherence of plot.
Dec 16, 2009
Amanda
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I took a seminar at Davidson on Robert Browning- before this class I really had only read "My Last Duchess" and didn't know much about him. I now consider him one of my favorite poets (and I really only have two) and it's because of his use of the dramatic monologue which makes his poetry read like narrative prose, even when it has a regular metre and rhyme scheme. His poems take on specific characters and tell stories and frequently his characters are cynical or unsavory. Genius and d
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Feb 05, 2012
