The English poet and playwright Robert Browning is more widely known in Europe than in Russia. He takes pride of place among writers of the Victorian era. Robert Browning's works are expressed in poems, dramatic monologues, poems with vivid characters and philosophical overtones.
The childhood and youth of Robert Browning
Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812 in Cumberwell, near London, England. His father, a senior clerk of the Bank of England, provided his family a comfortable life and instilled in Robert a love of art and literature. The boy’s mother, a talented unprofessional pianist, taught her son to appreciate music. Being a religious nature, she endowed Robert with faith in the existence of God.
Robert attended primary school until the age of 14, but the boy's parents decided to transfer him to home schooling. In addition to the usual training subjects, Robert practiced horseback riding, fencing, boxing, singing and dancing. Since the family in which the future poet grew up was small and united, Robert spent a lot of time in his father’s library, which consisted of more than seven thousand publications.
Robert's father loved ancient Greek tragedies, so he designed the living room in a similar style in honor of Homer's favorite poem about Troy.
The early work of Robert Browning
Robert began to write his first poems at the age of 6, and already in 1833 anonymously published his poem "Polina: a fragment of confession." Not too disapproving of criticism of the poet's debut work did not stop, and in 1835 he published the dramatic poem Paracelsus. Her main character was the alchemist of the Renaissance. Although Robert Browning himself later called this work a failure, the poem garnered positive reviews.
Gradually, the creative career of the young poet is gaining momentum, and he gets acquainted with other authors: the English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850), the British writer Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and the English writer and actor William Charles Macridie (1793-1873). Encouraged by new acquaintances, especially with Macridi, Browning focuses on drama. His first stage work "Strafford" lasted five performances. Over the next ten years, he wrote 6 more scripts, none of which were successful with the audience.
In 1838, Browning went on a trip to the northern part of Italy to get acquainted with this sunny country and convey the whole atmosphere in his new poem. However, the Sordello publication in 1840 was a real disaster in the growing career of a young poet and writer. Critics have recognized this creation is completely incomprehensible and unreadable.
After disappointed reviews from critics and readers about Strafford and Sordello, Browning focused on using dramatic monologues. Robert is experimenting on the play "Pippa Passes By" (1841) and on the collections of poems "Dramatic Lyrics" (1842), "Dramatic Poems" (1845). Such monologues gave the main characters complete freedom of expression associated with a certain dramatic event in the work.
The late work of Robert Browning
In 1855, Browning published a collection of poems in two volumes, Men and Women. Despite the fact that Robert's work included a large number of dramatic monologues, the collection became popular, fell in love with many modern readers and collected several enthusiastic reviews from literary critics.
In 1864, Robert Browning published his new work, "Dramatis personae", which found its recognition in all circles of society.
The author’s strong reputation was consolidated after the publication of a long novel in the verses “The Ring and the Book” in 1868-1869. What is happening in the poem is partly based on real events that took place in 1698 in Italy. The action takes place in Rome around one murder and subsequent justice. The poem is based on 12 dramatic monologues in which each of the main characters gives his own interpretation of the crime. As conceived by the author, the dialogues of the heroes are contradictory, but the truth only opens at the end of the work.
Thanks to this work, Robert Browning consolidated his position in the readership and became an important figure in London society. Browning has become a frequent guest at various events, dinners, concerts and receptions. For the next 10 years, Robert Browning has been active in creative work, publishing his work almost every year. But not one of them became more famous than the poem "Men and Women."
