Publisher's Synopsis
This book gathers accounts of the two poets from her precocious childhood to his death in Venice. Comments from contemporaries (including Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne, Tennyson, and Henry James) and from the poets themselves give a range of perspectives on their politics, relationships, religious beliefs, ambitions and working habits, and personal appearance. Persistent images - Barrett Browning the frail recluse or Browning the loud and trivial talker who has no apparent connection with Browning the poet - can be seen both establishing themselves and being qualified, rejected, or complicated.