Aurora Leigh

Definition

Published in 1865, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s epic novel in verse, Aurora Leigh, is her most ambitious and innovative work. Written in blank verse over nine books, the text’s concerns stretch across diverse subjects: art, gender, politics, and social responsibility. The variety of literary modes include bildungsroman, epistolary novel, dialectical argument and love poetry, while layers of Classical and Christian allusion allow Barrett Browning to claim a place in the conventionally male epic tradition. Written in the style of an autobiographical narrative, the poem tells the story of Aurora Leigh, a young woman who was brought up in Italy by her English father after the death of her Italian mother. When her father dies, Aurora is sent to live in England with her paternal aunt in the family’s ancestral home, Leigh Hall. The text follows her growing poetic talent and artistic development, and is thematically anchored through a series of core questions and conflicts, such as...