Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet whose work, public reputation and marriage to Robert Browning made her one of the most prominent literary figures of the Victorian period.

Barrett Browning published widely from the 1830s and became known for poems including Sonnets from the Portuguese and the verse novel Aurora Leigh. For much of her early adult life she lived as an invalid in her father’s house in Wimpole Street. Her correspondence with Robert Browning developed into a secret courtship and marriage in 1846, after which the couple settled in Italy. Her writing addressed love, women’s independence, child labour, slavery and Italian nationalism.