Life of Browning by William Sharp
Please note:
The Following Books relating to Robert Browning are now online:
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Corson, Hiram. An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry,
3rd edition.
This book is primarily concerned with Browning's poems.
Advantages: This book is an excellent introduction to Browning.
Orr, Mrs. Sutherland. Life and Letters of Robert Browning, 2nd edition.
This book is primarily concerned with Browning's life.
Advantages: As a close friend, the author has a good grasp of the facts,
and is meticulous in her treatment of the material.
Disadvantages: As a close friend, the author is sometimes partisan.
Sharp, William. Life of Robert Browning.
Despite the title, this book is as much a critique of Browning's works
as it is a biography of the poet.
Advantages: Further removed from poet, the author is willing to make
some criticisms. As an early and frequently quoted work on the subject,
this book is a good resource.
Disadvantages: Due to carelessness on the part of the author
and his publisher, a number of factual and other errors were made.
Although this electronic text has corrected many of the obvious errors,
they are frequent enough to leave misgivings.
[Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are capitalised.
Some obvious errors may have been corrected.]
Life of Robert Browning
by William Sharp.
Contents.
Chapter 1.
London, Robert Browning's birthplace; his immediate predecessorsand contemporaries in literature, art, and music; born May 7th, 1812;origin of the Browning family; assertions as to its Semitic connectionapparently groundless; the poet a putative descendantof the Captain Micaiah Browning mentioned by Macaulay;Robert Browning's mother of Scottish and German origin;his father a man of exceptional powers, artist, poet, critic, student;Mr. Browning's opinion of his son's writings; the home in Camberwell;Robert Browning's childhood; concerning his optimism;his fondness for Carravaggio's "Andromeda and Perseus"; his poetic precocity;origin of "The Flight of the Duchess"; writes Byronic verse;is sent to school at Peckham; his holiday afternoons; sees London by night,from Herne Hill; the significance of the spectacle to him.
Chapter 2.
He wishes to be a poet; writes in the style of Byron and Pope;the "Death of Harold"; his poems, written when twelve years old,shown to Miss Flower; the Rev. W. J. Fox's criticisms on them;he comes across Shelley's "Daemon of the World"; Mrs. Browningprocures Shelley's poems, also those of Keats, for her son;the perusal of these volumes proves an important eventin his poetic development; he leaves school when fourteen years old,and studies at home under a tutor; attends a few lecturesat University College, 1829-30; chooses his career, at the age of twenty;earliest record of his utterances concerning his youthful life printedin `Century Magazine', 1881; he plans a series of monodramatic epics;Browning's lifework, collectively one monodramatic "epic";Shakespeare's and Browning's methods compared; Browning writes "Pauline"in 1832; his own criticism on it; his parents' opinions;his aunt's generous gift; the poem published in January 1833;description of the poem; written under the inspiring stimulus of