The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 1845-1846

When Robert Browning first met the ailing Elizabeth Barrett in 1845 it must have seemed to him like something from a gothic novel.

All but a prisoner to her strict, disciplinarian father, (who had forbidden all twelve of his children from marrying and disinherited any who disobeyed him), Elizabeth had recently published a book of poems that had made her one of the most lauded writers in the land.

Robert, enamored by Elizabeth's poems sought out a correspondence and after hundreds of letters had been exchanged between the two poets, Elizabeth finally agreed to meet him, beginning one of the most celebrated courtships in history.