Aurora Leigh

"Aurora Leigh" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a novel written in the mid-19th century. This work is a unique blend of poetry and narrative that explores themes of gender roles, art, love, and social issues through the eyes of its protagonist, Aurora. The story follows Aurora Leigh as she navigates her identity as a woman, poet, and artist in a society that often limits her ambitions. The opening of the novel introduces us to Aurora Leigh's reflections on her childhood, detailing her early experiences with loss and the absence of maternal guidance following her mother's death. Raised by her father, an Englishman, and an Italian nurse, she recounts her formative years spent in an isolated environment that nurtured her intellect and creativity. Aurora expresses a deep connection to both her memories of her mother and the sorrow that haunts her father. This poignant backdrop sets the stage for Aurora's eventual struggles as she transitions into adulthood, grappling with societal expectations and her aspirations as a female poet. Her inner conflicts between personal desire, familial duty, and artistic ambition become central themes as she asserts her identity throughout the text. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime and frequently anthologised after her death. Her work received renewed attention following the feminist scholarship of the 1970s and 1980s, and greater recognition of women writers in English. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabeth Barrett wrote poetry from the age of eleven. Her mother's collection of her poems forms one of the largest extant collections of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15, she became ill, suffering intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life. Later in life, she also developed lung problems, possibly tuberculosis. She took laudanum for the pain from an early age, which is likely to have contributed to her frail health.