Publisher's Synopsis
From the PROEM.
When some years ago I began to read Browning I took pencil notes of certain things as I went along. The habit then formed has been continued, and it is from notes thus accumulated that this small volume has been formed. My great object in reading was to arrive at the meaning, the thought, which always is and must be the chief thing in literature. The style is not unimportant, but it is secondary to the thought, and in fact grows out of it, is determined by it. Thought and the expression of it are psychologically, organically related; as even our bodies are the expression of our souls.
I have not attempted literary criticism in the ordinary way of that art, for which I possess no qualifications. My object has been to get face to face with a mind, the mind of Browning, to make its acquaintance, to discover its ideas, and to judge for myself whether, and how far these were true-or shadowed truth. It was to help me in the ordering of my life that I read in the first place, not that I might produce a book; my purpose was not literary but practical. Browning has been already treated by several literary persons, and perhaps little new from the literary standpoint can be said about him. It is not a standpoint from which we can get a profound, a satisfying view. The following pages tell how he affected a reader of average intelligence, who studied him leisurely, amid other avocations, and as opportunity allowed. That is all they profess to do, or attempt. I have aimed to be general in my statements - to present both the man and his work in broad outline; feeling that they who become interested can fill in the picture for themselves. What sort of people did Browning spring from? how was he brought up? where did he live? what type of mind had he? what class of subjects interested him? what was his final attitude towards life? how did he feel about religion - the eternal problem with the eternal fascination? and, as naturally following, was he optimistically or pessimistically inclined ? - upon such general questions I have tried to throw light....