A man of versatile genius, Robert Browning (1812-89) was one of the most significant literary figures of Victorian age. Although written his first book of poetry at the age of twelve, Browning earned public recognition with Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1868-9). Unlike his contemporaries, Browning delighted in the idiom of ordinary speech and in the peculiarities of minds and objects. He preferred dramatic monologue and chose characters from ...
