The Life of Robert Browning (Blackwell Critical Biographies) [Paperback]

Clyde De L. Ryals (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0631200932 | ISBN-13: 978-0631200932

Robert Browning is customarily regarded as a dramatic poet whose works are separate and distinct from himself. This biography proposes a different view of the poet and his poems. Every one of his works is regarded in the same way that Browning himself regarded it; as a performance in which the author plays a part, as producer, presenter, or actor, or sometimes all three; and each is examined as part of a constantly revised script entitled Presenting Robert Browning . To Browning life is more than art, but art is teh best way of dealing with what life is all about.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The best introduction to the entirety of Browning's career. The most significant aspects of life, writing, theme, development, contemporary reception, and 20th-century criticism are presented with great clarity and efficiency. Ryals's mastery of his subject is unrivaled." Choice.

"Only a handful of scholars could have written this book, and it is surely now the best introduction to the entirely of Browning's career... Ryals's mastery of his subject is... unrivalled... to be recommended as the best first book to read on Browning." Choice

"This biography, more successfully than any that has preceded it, achieves a fine balance between its sensitive commentary on the poet's life and the poet's art, and it further illuminates these subjects by locating them in a rich and wide-ranging cultural and historical context."Nineteenth-Century Literature.

"... a thoroughly admirable contribution - an introduction for the general reader, at a modest price, of the corpus fo Browning, described and summarized and commented upon in such a way as to provoke reading of the texts to verify the riches the critic announces he has found" John Stasny, Victorian Poetry.

"Clyde de L. Ryals has published two distinguished studies of Browning's works, and his knowledge of the field is second to none. ... Eminently readable, Ryal's study covers a huge amount of ground, offeringclear and reliable summaries of the poet's works and days. This kind of book is obviously much more useful to the current generation of students than the earlier handbooks compiled by Alexandra Orr and William." Victorian Studies

From the Back Cover

Clyde Ryals's masterful account explores Browning's work from Pauline, his earliest published poem, to Asolando, his last volume, and is the first biographical study in fifty years to treat chronologically and at length the entire Browning corpus.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Blackwell Publishers (April 19, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631200932
• ISBN-13: 978-0631200932
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,357,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.