Robert Browning (redirected from R Browning)

Browning, Robert 

Born May 7, 1812, in London; died Dec. 12, 1889, in Venice. English poet.

In his first poetic experiments, Browning followed the traditions of the English romanticists (for example, in the poems Pauline, 1833, and Paracelsus, 1835), but in his early dramas (Strafford, 1837, Pippa Passes, 1841, and,4 Blot in the ’Scutcheon, 1843) he was influenced by Shakespeare. The collections Dramatic Lyrics (1842), Dramatic Poems (1845), Men and Women (1855), and Dramatis Personae (1864) brought him fame. The main genre of Browning’s poetry is the dramatic monologue, used in philosophical reflections on the purpose of art (Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto) and the cruelty of a feudal lord (My Last Duchess). In “The Heretic’s Tragedy” he drew a frightful picture of wild fanaticism. The peak of his creativity was the novel in verse The Ring and the Book (1868-69), which portrays the tragic death of a young man and the hardheartedness of his milieu. His verse novels drawn from contemporary French life (Country of Red Nightcaps, 1873) and English life (Tavern Album, 1875) depict the power of money and religious obscurantism. The verse novellas in his collection Dramatic Idyls (1879) are devoted to ethical problems. In 1881 the Browning Society was founded for commentary on the texts of Browning.

WORKS

Complete Works, vols. 1-12. New York, [1912].
In Russian translation:
In the book Antologiia novoi angliiskoi poezii. Leningrad, 1937.

REFERENCES

Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 2, issue 2. Moscow, 1955.
Klimenko, E. I. Tvorchestvo R. Brauninga. Leningrad, 1967.
Nersesova, M. “Dobroe nachalo.” Voprosy literatury, 1968, no. 9.
Griffin, W. H., and H. Ch. Minchin. The Life of R. Browning, 3rd ed. London, 1938.
De Vane, W. C. A Browning Handbook, 2nd ed. New York, 1955.
Browning’s Mind and Art. Edinburgh-London, 1968.
Burrows, L. Browning the Poet. [Perth, 1969]. (Bibliography, pp. 298-300.)

M. A. NERSESOVA