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Aurora Leigh
by
This verse-novel tells the story of a female writer, balancing work and love. It is and based on Elizabeth's own experiences.
Excerpt from Aurora Leigh: A Poem in Nine Books
Aurora Leigh.
First Book.
Of writing many books there is no end;
And I, who have written much in prose and verse
For others' uses, will write now for mine, -
Will write my story for my better self,
As when ...more
Excerpt from Aurora Leigh: A Poem in Nine Books
Aurora Leigh.
First Book.
Of writing many books there is no end;
And I, who have written much in prose and verse
For others' uses, will write now for mine, -
Will write my story for my better self,
As when ...more
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Paperback, Oxford World’s Classics, 361 pages
Published
September 17th 1998
by Oxford University Press
(first published 1856)
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Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of Aurora Leigh

May 15, 2016
Sean Barrs
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Jane Eyre Fans
What do you say to someone who tells you to stop being yourself? You love him and you want to marry him, and he comes out with that. He tells you to stop writing poetry; it’s something women can’t do well apparently, and he tells you to give it up. Essentially, he tells you to stop being you. Here is Romney’s ignorant argument to his Aurora:
“We get no Christ from you- and verily
We shall not get a poet in my mind."
Aurora does the right thing, she says the right things, and she walks away. She d ...more
“We get no Christ from you- and verily
We shall not get a poet in my mind."
Aurora does the right thing, she says the right things, and she walks away. She d ...more

I did very much enjoy this -- especially the first two books. Aurora Leigh grows into such a strong, enlivened character. Barrett Browning shows that she is not just intellectually equal, but intellectually superior to the men in her life, and her moral/philosophical beliefs (which are kind of Stoic?) provide much food for thought. A great proto-feminist novel.
This is an Epic Poem, but the plot is far from the kind of thing you find in Homer and Milton. It's a bildungsroman, following the progre ...more
This is an Epic Poem, but the plot is far from the kind of thing you find in Homer and Milton. It's a bildungsroman, following the progre ...more

Aug 25, 2018
Czarny Pies
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
Whimsical readers.
Shelves:
english-lit
I am surprised how much I enjoyed this odd-ball work. It is feminist from a time when the word did not exist. As a verse novel it was highly experimental. As I am not aware of any other verse novels having been written since it would appear to be trial balloon that failed rather than an innovation.
Perhaps some versifier might consider a second attempt. As a reader I felt that the approach worked very well particularly in the first half. The events in the novel are banal and the characters are of ...more
Perhaps some versifier might consider a second attempt. As a reader I felt that the approach worked very well particularly in the first half. The events in the novel are banal and the characters are of ...more

Actual rating is closer to 3.75 stars.
Aurora Leigh is a weird book.
With that, I reworked my basic sigh of desperation while I was writing into the opening line of my dissertation, because this book is just fucking weird, man.
I regularly doubted if I should keep that introduction, but m ...more
Ah, Aurora Leigh, how do I review thee?
Shall I recount the ways in which you made me cry,
the nights of frustration, the days of recluse,
since I had a dissertation to finish,
and you were just so damn unreadable?
Aurora Leigh is a weird book.
With that, I reworked my basic sigh of desperation while I was writing into the opening line of my dissertation, because this book is just fucking weird, man.
I regularly doubted if I should keep that introduction, but m ...more

Maybe this poem fascinates me because I go to Baylor. Maybe these words excite me because I can stroll through the Armstrong-Browning library and see early drafts of Aurora Leigh in the author's own handwriting. Maybe EBB's living room furniture releases some abundance of curiosity in my mind that pops the words off the page. Maybe I like this poem because I know that EBB and I have read many of the same books and this produces some type of brain kinship.
I'm not really sure.
All I know is that I ...more
I'm not really sure.
All I know is that I ...more

4.9/5
I believe / In no one's honour which another keeps, / Nor man's nor woman's.It is rather pathetic, what is encouraged to soar and what is denied that extra gust of wind beneath its wings. More pathetic yet is when the status quo suckers bend over backwards to excuse the artificiality as if, pound for pound, the more neglected demographic did not meet the demands, layer by layer, pillar by pillar, defined by such vaunted categories as the e ...more
Do we keep / Our love to pay our debts with?

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
...more

I'm teaching this epic poem in my Victorian Poetry class this month, which has given me a chance to read it again for the first time in several years. I first read Aurora Leigh as a first-year college student in 1994 and was utterly blown away by the fact that a Victorian poem addressed so frankly the kinds of questions I was thinking about as a young woman in the late twentieth century. What kind of work should I do in the world? What kind of work did the world need? Could a poet help make the
...more

This is a Victorian epic poem that I had to read for my Victorian Literature class. While it was rather long and at times opaque, I really did enjoy it. I'm not a quote person, but I found myself underlining passages and connecting with this book. This book is rather fascinating, especially because of the cast of characters who are quite complex. I even wrote my final paper on this, so you know I enjoyed it. I would love to come back to this in the future and really enjoy and tear apart this tex
...more

I'm normally not a huge poetry fan (especially English poetry), but I make an exception for *Aurora Leigh.* A verse novel, an urban epic, a working wife and househusband: there's too much paradox here not to love it.
...more

"Aurora Leigh" was meant to be Elizabeth Barrett Browning (EBB)'s crowning masterpiece. Whether it is or is not a masterpiece is up to the reader, I think. It is undoubtedly ambitious and unique. I think "Aurora Leigh" is a remarkable if imperfect epic poem about the value of the artist in society, the place of women in Victorian England, and Aurora's struggles to balance both those roles.
At 20, passionate, idealistic, and orphaned "Aurora Leigh" does the unthinkable--she rejects her wealthy cou ...more
At 20, passionate, idealistic, and orphaned "Aurora Leigh" does the unthinkable--she rejects her wealthy cou ...more

I needed a break from my Gothic teen novels so decided to read this epic poem by one of my favorite poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I thought it was beautiful. It was a feminist story to some extent and a good attempt to describe what it is to be an artist/poet. I was touched by much of the imagery and eloquence in the writing. Was it an easy read, no. It took me a while to get through simply because I really had to concentrate on what I was reading. I guess it was a good thing I moved away fr
...more

I think I have always secretly wanted to be EBB/Aurora Leigh and that is why this text about the profound power of writing and the staggering beauty of reading gives my soul hope. Plus, it's a novel in verse. Could YOU write a novel in verse?
...more

My review: https://theblankgarden.com/2019/10/30...
...more

A recent friend of mine told me, back in 1910, that "There is an infinitely finer English novel, written by a woman, than anything by George Eliot or the Brontes, or even Jane Austen, which perhaps you have not read. Its title is 'Aurora Leigh,' and its author E.B. Browning. It happens to be written in verse, and to contain a considerable amount of genuinely fine poetry. Decide to read that book through, even if you die for it. Forget that it is fine poetry. Read it simply for the story and the
...more

First time I read an epic poem written by a woman: achievement unlocked. And what a journey this one is.
''I read a score of books on womanhood
To prove, if women do not think at all,
They may teach thinking.''
A study in womanhood, poetry, and art, set in Victorian society but with a diverse European character, Aurora Leigh is a catapult of revolutionary ideas that follow a young girl throughout her life as she discovers her passion for writing and disregard of societal norms, especially regarding ...more
''I read a score of books on womanhood
To prove, if women do not think at all,
They may teach thinking.''
A study in womanhood, poetry, and art, set in Victorian society but with a diverse European character, Aurora Leigh is a catapult of revolutionary ideas that follow a young girl throughout her life as she discovers her passion for writing and disregard of societal norms, especially regarding ...more

I had planned to take quarantine as a time to read more slowly and therefore give myself the opportunity to THINK.
Still, I enjoyed this novel-in-verse too much to make a labour of it, even when the labour is to my benefit. A grand defence of poetry and aestheticism against its fiercest rival...Socialism? Barrett Browning writes wholly of the 19th century, of her time. Of course, the past is neither dead nor past, and her themes have left me ponder, her style inticing me to read more and again. W ...more
Still, I enjoyed this novel-in-verse too much to make a labour of it, even when the labour is to my benefit. A grand defence of poetry and aestheticism against its fiercest rival...Socialism? Barrett Browning writes wholly of the 19th century, of her time. Of course, the past is neither dead nor past, and her themes have left me ponder, her style inticing me to read more and again. W ...more

I don't know why more people haven't read this.
(I mean, I know why.... It's a Victorian novel in iambic pentameter.... But still...) ...more
(I mean, I know why.... It's a Victorian novel in iambic pentameter.... But still...) ...more

I am surprised to say that I really liked this. I think if asked before I read it if I would enjoy Victorian feminist epic poetry, I would have answered with a definitive no. The plot of this is a bit predictable, but there are some really lovely images in here. And I was also a bit shocked by how violent it all was - mostly in metaphor, though not entirely. Which I think is pretty interesting when you hold it up alongside the idea of poetry as a feminine thing - both gendered female, if a poem
...more

Readers should be greeted with a warning that this is a longer narrative poem than Paradise Lost. That being said, it's also a great story full of intrigue, references of Italy versus England, feminism, and literature. The love story, albeit very Jane Eyre, is also touching (although I'd like to imagine they're slightly more distant cousins than described). Aurora is a great female character and a wonderful individual in her own right. Her search for truth and poetry is admirable, as is the stor
...more

Dec 29, 2010
JoAnn Jordan
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-read-in-2010
This is a great novel in verse. Though long the story is well told. I had missed this masterpiece earlier in life and am quite glad to find it now.
I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy love stories or poetry.
I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy love stories or poetry.

Apr 22, 2007
Cody
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
victorianism-realism-naturalism
You'd think I'd eventually tire of reading about the plight of the struggling artist. Well, I guess I kind of have...but this is in verse...and gorgeously written!
...more

Dec 25, 2007
Joseph Tepperman
added it
so masterfully written! moreso than anything i've seen from her husband bob.
...more

So much fun to read. Elizabeth Barrett Browning takes "the narrative" to the next level, while suggesting some revolutionary ideas for the 19th century.
...more
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era.
Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Browning was educated at home. She wrote poetry from around the age of six and this was compiled by her mother, comprising what is now one of the largest collections extant of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15 Browning became ill, suffering from intense head an ...more
Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Browning was educated at home. She wrote poetry from around the age of six and this was compiled by her mother, comprising what is now one of the largest collections extant of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15 Browning became ill, suffering from intense head an ...more
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“Earth's crammed with heaven...
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
—
817 likes
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
“Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my father’s name;
Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out
Among the giant fossils of my past,
Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs
Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
At this or that box, pulling through the gap,
In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning’s dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!”
—
110 likes
More quotes…
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my father’s name;
Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out
Among the giant fossils of my past,
Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs
Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
At this or that box, pulling through the gap,
In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning’s dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!”