英国文学史及选读（第二版）第二册 课件 Chapter 14 Robert Browning.pptx

Part VIII The Second Half of the 19th Century: The Victorian Age and Critical Realism Part 1Chapter 14 Robert BrowningLife and WorksBrief Comment Selections---Notes---For Study and Discussion Chapter 14 Robert BrowningLife and WorksRobert Browning (1812–1889) was born in London. His first stimulus to poetic creation was given by a volume of Shelley which he picked up by chance on a London book stall in his fourteenth year. His first long poem, Pauline, published in 1 was a half-dramatic study of the type of spiritual life which Shelley’s career embodied; and Shelley’s influence was cle traceable both in its thought and in its style. After a trip to and Italy, Browning published Paracelsus in 1835. This, like Pauline, was the “history of a soul”. Life and WorksIn 1846 Browning eloped with Elizabeth Barrett, whose poetic reputation was then far greater than his, and went to live in Italy. The pair settled Florence, in the house called “Casa Guidi”, from which was taken the tit of Mrs. Browning’s long poem on the Italian Liberation, Casa Guidi Windows (1851). Here Browning continued his great series of dramatic monologues. After Mrs. Browning’s death in 1861, he began The Ring and the Book. This is the crowning effort of his genius for the vastness of its scope and its grasp of human nature, though it lacks the spontaneous grace and charm which the best of his shorter pieces share with Pippa Passes, th perfect fruit of his youthful imagination.Chapter 14 Robert Browning Brief CommentRobert Browning, who disputed with Tennyson the first place among Victorian poets, was Tennyson’s opposite in almost every respect but fame and length of years. His genius was preeminently dramatic; his interest la not in universal law, but in individual passion. And his style, instead of b eclectic and carefully elaborated, was highly individual, and often more intent on meaning than on form. Browning was strong where Tennyson was weak, weak where Tennyson was strong. Both shared almost eq