Reviews

Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

adeleighpenguin's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5
My music undergrad is showing-vast epic poems like this just aren’t quite in my wheelhouse yet. And with how fast paced my life is right now, I didn’t have time to read it two or three times like I might have preferred to let it sink in. For now I do find Aurora to be lovely, and kind of exceptionally independent given the time. I’ll be revisiting this one outside of class when I get the chance

sarahheidt's review against another edition

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I'm teaching this epic poem in my Victorian Poetry class this month, which has given me a chance to read it again for the first time in several years. I first read Aurora Leigh as a first-year college student in 1994 and was utterly blown away by the fact that a Victorian poem addressed so frankly the kinds of questions I was thinking about as a young woman in the late twentieth century. What kind of work should I do in the world? What kind of work did the world need? Could a poet help make the world better? How could romantic relationships and a vocation or calling go together? Where might child-bearing fit into a creative life? And the wild plot twists also hooked me--the ways that completely unforeseen developments turned up seemingly every twenty pages, yet then seemed completely organic to the poem's narrative as it developed.

I've had to read Aurora Leigh several more times in classes I've taken, and I've taught it four or five times in my own college classrooms. This semester, I've been thrilled by the fact that my 20-year-old students have been saying, "How have we never heard of this before?"

If you think that Victorian literature is all--and that Victorian people (especially women) were all--stodgy and boring and shortsighted and strait laced, this book-length poem will complicate your thinking, as long as you're patient and let yourself get into reading it. It won't take long for it to feel as though you're reading a novel. And then you might find yourself not wanting to put it down.

aileena99's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

sashahawkins's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

baylower's review against another edition

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Had to return it lmaooo

georgina08's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

Love EBB a whole lot

booksmellers's review against another edition

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challenging funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.5

cachinapura's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

3.25

oxfordcommaon's review against another edition

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5.0

This was a masterpiece of a poem. Shines a light which permeates through the ages - recommend to everyone.

reclusivebookslug's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

3.25

I've always been an avid reader, but I'm vastly more comfortable reading prose than poetry, so this was a challenge for me in terms of my recreational reading choices. The more poetry I read, the more I enjoy it and the less I struggle. I chose this one because I read some excerpts in a lit course I took and was interested to get the full context.

Marian Erle was the highlight of the story for me, and I sort of wish the whole story was about her, or at least that we'd gotten to see more of her. The conclusion of her character arc was somewhat disappointing.

I'm not quite satisfied with the character development in the novel, although I'm not confident enough to say if this is due to my lack of understanding or a different value system. I also didn't particularly enjoy the romance element.