Robert Browning photograph
Public domain photo of Robert Browning, by Julia Margaret Cameron

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

A selective list of online literary criticism for the nineteenth-century Victorian poet Robert Browning, with links to reliable introductory material and signed, peer-reviewed, and scholarly literary criticism.


Main Page | 19th-Century Literary Criticism | British Poets, Victorian | Elizabeth Barrett Browning


Introduction & Biography

"Robert Browning." An encyclopedia-type article on Robert Browning, (unsigned but from a reliable publisher, professionally researched and edited) with text for some of his most famous poems. Also includes first rate articles by poets and other sophisticated commentators. Poetry Foundation.

"Robert Browning." A brief introduction to Robert Browning, with text for some of his most famous poems. Academy of American Poets.

"Robert Browning." Essays on Robert Browning's style, themes, biography, and the Victorian background, from The Victorian Web, Prof. George P. Landow, editor.

"Robert Browning." A trustworthy, basic article, from Encyclopedia Britanicca.

The New York Browning Society. A brief article "About the Brownings."

Roberts, Adam. "Robert Browning," Literary Encyclopedia. Eds. Robert Clark, Emory Elliott, Janet Todd. An introduction to Robert Browning, from a database that provides signed literary criticism by experts in their field [subscription service].


Literary Criticism

Anderson, James E. "Robert Browning's 'Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister': Themes, Voices, and the Words, Hy, Zy, Hine." Anderson contends that the poem "is not a failed experiment with nonsense-words for a climax, but rather a carefully conceived dramatic situation with a terrifying end." Victorian Poetry 35, 3 (Fall 1997) [free at jstor].

Bohm, Arnd. "Increasing suspicion about Browning's Grammarian." Victorian Poetry 44, 2 (Summer 2006) [substantial excerpt, muse].

Fontana, Ernest. "Gender and sexual anxiety in Browning's 'Waring' and 'The Guardian Angel.'" Victorian Poetry 44, 2 (Summer 2006) [free at jstor].

Fontana, Ernest. "Sexual Tourism and Browning's 'The Englishman in Italy.'" On the relationship between the Englishman-speaker and the young Sorrentine female in Browning's dramatic monologue 'The Englishman in Italy.' Victorian Poetry 36, 3 (Fall 1998) [free at jstor].

Fowler, Rowena. "Browning's Jews." On Robert Browning's empathetic portrayals of Jews in his writing. Victorian Poetry 35, 3 (Fall 1997) [free at jstor].

Hair, Donald S. "A Note on Meter, Music, and Meaning in Robert Browning's Fifine at the Fair." Victorian Poetry Spring 2001 [substantial excerpt, muse].

Inglesfield, Robert. "Two interpolated speeches in Robert Browning's 'A Death in the Desert.'" Victorian Poetry Fall 2003 [substantial excerpt, muse].

Martens, Britta. "'Hardly shall I tell my joys and sorrows': Robert Browning's engagement with Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetics." Victorian Poetry Spring 2005 [sub ser, questia].

Merchant, Peter. "Winking through the chinks: Eros and Ellipsis in Robert Browning's 'Love Among the Ruins.'" Victorian Poetry 45, 4 (Winter 2007) [excerpt, muse].

Peterfreund, Stuart. "Robert Browning's decoding of natural theology in 'Caliban upon Setebos.'" Victorian Poetry Fall 2005 [substantial excerpt, muse].


Victorian Cultural & Historical Context

"Victorianism." The Victorian Web. Ed. George P. Landow. Essays topics include Victorianism as a Fusion of Neoclassical and Romantic Ideas; The Complex Realities of Victorianism; Main Currents in Victorian Intellectual History; The fundamental conflicts of Victorian poetry; Density and Elaborate Interconnectedness of High and Late Victorian culture; The Difficulties of Victorian Poetry; Victorian Doubt and Victorian Architecture; Victorian taste; Victorian Design; Race in Thought and Science; Victorian Earnestness; The Seaside in the Victorian Literary Imagination; Tennyson and Victorianism; The Victorian Gentleman; Crisis of Organized Religion; Queen Victoria.

"Monuments and Dust." Eds. Michael Levenson, David Trotter, Anthony Wohl. IATH, U of Va. A project by an international group of scholars who are creating a complex visual, textual, and statistical representation of Victorian London.

Jackson, Lee. "A Dictionary of Victorian London." Victorian social history through a "dictionary" of Victorian institutions.


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