Dr William Frame, Head of Modern Archives and Manuscripts, writes: Considered one of the most important English poets of the 19th century, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a prominent writer of the Victorian period. These letters, predominantly written from Barrett Browning to her sister Henrietta Surtees Cook, offer valuable insight into her work, public reception and social networks.
Spanning the period 1846 to 1860, the letters follow the publication of Poems (1844), for which she became well known, and cover the later part of her career, when she wrote Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), Aurora Leigh (1856) and Poems Before Congress (1860). Eschewing the conventions of her time for female authors, Barrett Browning’s work focuses on social and political issues, such as industrialisation, religious controversy and gender inequality.
The acquisition comprises:
- 119 letters (1846-1860), totalling 826 pages plus envelopes, sent from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, with three jointly addressed to her sisters, Henrietta and Arabella, and 116 solely to Henrietta
- Ten letters (1846-1850) from Barrett Browning’s husband, Robert, also to Henrietta and Arabella
- Two letters (1855-1856) from Barrett Browning’s son Robert, known as ‘Pen’
Born in County Durham in 1806, Barrett Browning moved to Italy with her husband in 1846. She lived with chronic illness for much of her adult life and her letters are extensive, each one running to several pages of closely written text, providing a wealth of detail on her personal life, as well as information on the genesis of her works and on her literary networks. Many of the letters include small pen-and-ink sketches, hand-drawn by Barrett Browning, to complement and amplify her words on the page.
Highlights from the series of letters include Barrett Browning:
- Writing to her sisters (2 October 1846), shortly after she secretly married Robert Browning against her father’s will, expressing how challenging it was for her to hide their feelings and intentions
- Praising her husband Robert Browning for the ‘tender patience’ with which he has looked after her during a bout of illness (12 February 1855)
- Meeting with poet Alfred Tennyson and his wife in Paris, complimenting Tennyson’s kindness towards her and her husband (20-21 July 1851)
- Sketching a street procession (13 September 1847) celebrating the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, who had granted the people of Florence permission to form a civic guard. This procession and other events of the Risorgimento, the political and cultural movement for Italian unification, would go on to inspire her poem, Casa Guidi Windows (1851)
- Expressing her surprise and amusement at allegations that her verse novel Aurora Leigh was written by spirits, stating ‘I disavowed any share in it except the mere mechanical holding of the pen - !!!’ (10 January 1857)
- Meeting W.M. Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair, in Rome, whom she described as ‘an amusing man-mountain enough and very courteous to us – but I never should get on with him much, I think – he is not sympathetical to me’ (30 December 1853)
The letters are a major source for the last 15 years of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s life, giving a compelling first-hand account of her life and work, and of her social and family networks. Interest in Barrett Browning has grown steadily since the 1970s, reflecting her importance as one of the leading female writers of the nineteenth century. Her writings on contemporary issues (including the role of women, the growth of nationalism, the legacy of slavery, and the nature of individual belief) remain very relevant today. These letters offer the opportunity to study her later life in close detail, mixing as they do family and personal news with discussions of her writing and social circle. As she herself wrote in 1846 ‘I, for my part, value letters … as the most vital part of biography’.
