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heather_freshparchment's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Trafficking, Classism, Pregnancy, Rape, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent
aegagrus's review against another edition
3.5
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's language in Aurora Leigh is very beautiful, full of elaborate Victorian similes, lush description, and clever dialogue. Some modern readers might find the language excessive and indulgent. This was not my reaction. EBB's poetic register is very much of its time and it serves her characters well. These are people who obfuscate and conceal not by tight-lipped caution but by overflowing verbosity.
I was struck by how unreliable of a narrator Aurora is. It's not so much that she's lying to the narrator; she's lying to herself, and a great amount of cognitive dissonance makes its way into the story she's telling. At several points she acts in ways which will self-evidently produce results contrary to her purported (and probably genuine) intent. The characters with whom Aurora interacts are similarly unreliable in their dealings with her, all of which makes for a work which is sometimes thematically ambiguous. It is not always clear how to read EBB's depictions of aristocratic society, socialist idealism, or literary culture. These depictions are plainly satirical in certain ways, but it is not always clear in which direction the satire is aimed.
The clearest unifying thread is that the three major characters -- Aurora, Romney, and Marian -- all struggle with a tension between some transcendent purpose (respectively art, social reform, and an idealized love) and the concrete relationships in which they find themselves. While we cannot know exactly what EBB made of this tension, we can be sure that she wrestled with it. She was a poet, inclined towards the transcendent, and also a woman, socialized towards the domestic and relational. Cognitive dissonance or no, Aurora's reflections on art, gender, and love offer a fascinating glimpse into some of the conflicting loyalties EBB lived with (it is this sense in which Aurora Leigh is "semi-autobiographical").
The story's ending is likely unsatisfying to many readers today, and one wonders whether EBB was simply offering a concession to the expectations of her readers. Even then, the ending is "saved" somewhat by the fact that the reader has by this point learned to be wary of taking the story they are being told at face value.
I was struck by how unreliable of a narrator Aurora is. It's not so much that she's lying to the narrator; she's lying to herself, and a great amount of cognitive dissonance makes its way into the story she's telling. At several points she acts in ways which will self-evidently produce results contrary to her purported (and probably genuine) intent. The characters with whom Aurora interacts are similarly unreliable in their dealings with her, all of which makes for a work which is sometimes thematically ambiguous. It is not always clear how to read EBB's depictions of aristocratic society, socialist idealism, or literary culture. These depictions are plainly satirical in certain ways, but it is not always clear in which direction the satire is aimed.
The clearest unifying thread is that the three major characters -- Aurora, Romney, and Marian -- all struggle with a tension between some transcendent purpose (respectively art, social reform, and an idealized love) and the concrete relationships in which they find themselves. While we cannot know exactly what EBB made of this tension, we can be sure that she wrestled with it. She was a poet, inclined towards the transcendent, and also a woman, socialized towards the domestic and relational. Cognitive dissonance or no, Aurora's reflections on art, gender, and love offer a fascinating glimpse into some of the conflicting loyalties EBB lived with (it is this sense in which Aurora Leigh is "semi-autobiographical").
The story's ending is likely unsatisfying to many readers today, and one wonders whether EBB was simply offering a concession to the expectations of her readers. Even then, the ending is "saved" somewhat by the fact that the reader has by this point learned to be wary of taking the story they are being told at face value.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Classism and Death of parent
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