The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (volume 2 of 2)

These are the letters that changed the course of literary history. Volume two continues the extraordinary correspondence between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, picking up as the couple embarks on their new life together in Italy. From Florence to Venice to Milan, Elizabeth records her impressions of Renaissance cities with a poet's eye, contemplates the political turbulence of Risorgimento Italy, and grapples with her own creative work-in-progress, 'Casa Guidi Windows.' Yet what elevates these letters beyond mere travelogue is their intimate unguardedness: we see a woman who was told she would never marry, never travel, never live, discovering joy and purpose alongside the man who carried her off to sunshine. Her observations on art, her debates about politics, her worries about her son's health, her asides about domestic life all cohere into a portrait of a woman who was, in every sense, finally alive. For anyone who has ever read a poem and wondered what kind of mind created it, these letters offer an answer more vivid than any biography could provide.