Aurora Leigh

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2016

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic "Aurora Leigh" which was published in 1856. It is the story of an orphan, Aurora, born in Italy to an English father and Tuscan mother, who is brought up by an aunt in rural Shropshire. She has a successful career as a poet in London and, when living in Florence, is reunited with her cousin, Romney Leigh, whose proposal she turned down a decade before. The poem was celebrated by other poets and was Elizabeth Barrett Browning's most commercially successful. Over 11,000 lines, she addressed many Victorian social issues, including reform, illegitimacy, the pressure to marry and what women must overcome to be independent, successful writers, in a world dominated by men.

With

Margaret Reynolds Professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London

Daniel Karlin Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol

And

Karen O'Brien Professor of English Literature at King's College London

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about in our time, and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:08.0	UK slash Radio 4. I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.6	Hello Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic poem Aurora Lee was published at the end of
0:16.2	1856. It was immensely popular selling in vast numbers in Britain and America.
0:21.3	Then nothing as Robert Browning's reputation increased, his
0:25.7	wife's evaporated. In the words of his union wolf, fate has not been kind to Mrs Browning as a writer.
0:31.3	O'Rorily is a novel in the form of a poem.
0:34.0	At its heart is a poet, Aurora, discovering how a woman can make an independent career as a writer.
0:40.0	It also addresses what was known as the woman question, the role and rights of women in society.
0:45.0	One character, Marion Earl, scandalised readers by refusing to be ashamed of her illegitimate
0:49.8	child, rejecting a marriage proposal that according to values of the time, would have made an honest woman again.
0:56.0	With me to discuss Elizabeth Barrett Brownings or Rory Lee are Margaret Reynolds, Professor of English at Queen Mary University of London,
1:04.0	Daniel Carlin, Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol,
1:08.0	and Karen O'Brien, Professor of English Literature at King's College London. Now I. Margaret or Peggy Reynolds, right?
1:15.2	That's it.
1:16.2	She was born Elizabeth Baron, Milton Barrett.
1:21.2	Sorry, let's start again.
1:22.2	She was born Elizabeth Barrett, Milton Barrett, Sorry, let's start again. She was born Elizabeth Milton Barrett in 1806.
1:25.0	How unusual was that?
1:27.0	It's very complicated because her family, her father's family were very wealthy and they had often required that the
1:35.6	family keep the family name of Barrett. So they keep swapping about between
1:40.4	Molton and Barrett but this wealth was tremendously important in Elizabeth's
	...

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