CHAPTER I. It must, to admirers of Browning's writings, appear singularly appropriate that so cosmopolitan a poet was born in London. It would seem as though something of that mighty complex life, so confusedly petty to the narrow vision, so grandiose and even majestic to the larger ken, had blent with his being from the first. What fitter birthplace for the poet whom a comrade has called the "Subtlest Assertor of the Soul in Song," the poet whose writings are indeed a mirror of the age? A man may be in all things a ...
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CHAPTER I. It must, to admirers of Browning's writings, appear singularly appropriate that so cosmopolitan a poet was born in London. It would seem as though something of that mighty complex life, so confusedly petty to the narrow vision, so grandiose and even majestic to the larger ken, had blent with his being from the first. What fitter birthplace for the poet whom a comrade has called the "Subtlest Assertor of the Soul in Song," the poet whose writings are indeed a mirror of the age? A man may be in all things a Londoner and yet be a provincial. The accident of birthplace does not necessarily involve parochialism of the soul. It is not the village which produces the Hampden, but the Hampden who immortalises the village. It is a favourite jest of Rusticus that his urban brother has the manner of Omniscience and the knowledge of a parish beadle. Nevertheless, though the strongest blood insurgent in the metropolitan heart is not that which is native to it, one might well be proud to have had one's atom-pulse atune from the first with the large rhythm of the national life at its turbulent, congested, but ever ebullient centre. Certainly Browning was not the man to be ashamed of his being a Londoner, much less to deny his natal place. He was proud of it: through good sense, no doubt, but possibly also through some instinctive apprehension of the fact that the great city was indeed the fit mother of such a son. "Ashamed of having been born in the greatest city of the world!" he exclaimed on one occasion; "what an extraordinary thing to say! It suggests a wavelet in a muddy shallow grimily contorting itself because it had its birth out in the great ocean." On the day of the poet's funeral in Westminster Abbey, one of the most eminent of his peers remarked to me that Browning came to us as one coming into his own. This is profoundly true. There was in good sooth a mansion prepared against his advent. Long ago, we should have surrendered as to a conqueror: now, however, we know that princes of the mind, though they must be valorous and potent as of yore, can enter upon no heritance save that which naturally awaits them, and has been made theirs by long and intricate processes. The lustrum which saw the birth of Robert Browning, that is the third in the nineteenth century, was a remarkable one indeed. Thackeray came into the world some months earlier than the great poet, Charles Dickens within the same twelvemonth, and Tennyson three years sooner, when also Elizabeth Barrett was born, and the foremost naturalist of modern times first saw the light. It is a matter of significance that the great wave of scientific thought which ultimately bore forward on its crest so many famous men, from Brewster and Faraday to Charles Darwin, had just begun to rise with irresistible impulsion. Lepsius's birth was in 1813, and that of the great Flemish novelist, Henri Conscience, in 1812: about the same period were the births of Freiligrath, Gutzkow, and Auerbach, respectively one of the most lyrical poets, the most potent dramatist, the most charming romancer of Germany: and, also, in France, of Theophile Gautier and Alfred de Musset....
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Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $7.15, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $7.25, fair condition, Sold by P Peterson Bookseller rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Osseo, WI, UNITED STATES, published 1890 by Walter Scott.
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Fair. No Jacket. Book. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Green cloth binding with black print on the front cover and black and gilt print on the spine. There is pencil underlining and margin marks mostly in the first half of the book. There is a name printed on the front end paper. The cover has some very light scuffing.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $8.04, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $8.04, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2013 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $15.63, good condition, Sold by John C. Newland rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Cheltenham, Glos., UNITED KINGDOM, published 1890 by Walter Scott.
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Used-Good. Good hardback. 1st edition, in dark blue cloth with gilt. Bookplate on front pastedown; page edges browned; spine bumped at head & foot, with wear to cloth.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $16.12, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2023 by Alpha Edition.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $18.00, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2025 by Anson Street Press.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $18.00, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2023 by Legare Street Press.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $18.00, very good condition, Sold by Between the Covers-Rare Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester City, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1890 by Walter Scott.
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Near Fine. First edition. Near fine. Previous owner's writing in pencil on front free endpaper, clean text and cloth covers, gold stamped spine cloth corners bumped.
Add this copy of Life of Robert Browning to cart. $19.94, good condition, Sold by Anybook rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lincoln, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1890 by Walter Scott.
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This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside. This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. Blue clothbound octavo hardback, with gilt lettering on spine. Foxing on page edges. Pages are generally clean and in good condition. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 400grams, ISBN:
