As an English teacher, I'm ashamed to admit that I knew very little about either Elizabeth Barrett or Robert Browning before picking up this book. The story of their maid, Lily Wilson, gives an interesting perspective on the private life of Elizabeth and Robert. And I admired that Forster depicted the two famous literary figures as she saw to be accurate, rather than glamorizing and glorifying them as there might be a temptation to do. The two poets are very human, often fussy, melodramatic, and given to self-aggrandizement. That made me all the more interested in the story of Lily and the difference in their lifestyle and hers, and of course their indifference to the way they treated her. It's been a while since I read something like Jane Austen, so it was refreshing and fascinating to dip back into a world with social codes so different from ours today. This book must have taken years to research, and Forster's depiction of Victorian life shows the evidence of that research.

There was a page-long afterword that explained which parts of the book were true, but I wanted more. I wish Margaret Forster had written more books like this! You won't be sorry you picked it up.

I knew next to nothing about the subject matter of this book when my mother lent it to me (she loved it as well). Forster is able to completely personalize the social constrictions of Victorian society through the eyes of Wilson, Lady's Maid to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Honestly enjoyable and a treat to read. I couldn't help noticing all the 5 star ratings here - well deserving of this fine author. Bravo!

I have to start out by saying that it has been 9 years since I read this book, but even now it stands out as one of the most telling books I have ever read about a genious writer named Elizabeth Barret Browning. In Lady's maid the story of Elizabeth Barret Browning is told from the eyes of her Maid servant. This unusual perspective gives the reader the ability to see the writer(Elizabeth Barret) from a third party focus instead of a introspective focus. The book is sooo good that you are instantly transfixed after the first page. If you are wise you will buy the book and read it when you can literaly sit down and read it cover to cover and enjoy it. It is that good! Enjoy and be edducated. Remember to have lots of tissue at the end, you will need it!

My ex girlfriend, Ashleigh, gave this to me years ago, before she was forced by her family to marry this guy. Long story but she sent this book to me and signed the inside.
Next to Shakespeare, this is the most bittersweet and poetic
poems of love that I have ever read.
It was said that a husband and wife team wrote these so one can only imagine how passionate their marriage was, huh?

This book of sonnets and poems is just wonderful. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's writing is able to get to the very heart of the reader with honesty and beauty. This collection really speaks to the romantic soul with passion and truth. I find her writings to be incredibly moving and this volume touched me deeply.

These sonnets ease my tension when I read them.

My ex girlfriend, Ashleigh, gave this to me years ago, before she was forced by her family to marry this guy named Tyler. Long story but she sent this book to me and signed the inside.

Next to Shakespeare, this is the most bittersweet and poetic
poems of love that I have ever read.

It was said that a husband and wife team wrote these so one can only imagine how passionate their marriage was, huh?

The book brings together the best of Elizabeth barret Browning. It is a wonderful, emotional book. I enjoy poetry, especially good kind. this is it.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry, especially the "Sonnets from the Portuguese," is beautiful, intelligent, and honest love poetry. Anyone who has experienced the doubts, fears, and transformation of love will recognize the truth of the poet's struggle to trust and to love.

"How Do I Love Thee?" was a romantic true love story. In the book, Robert Browning gave Elizabeth "Ba" Barret the courage to love and live life. Ba was an invalid who lived with a widowed, controlling father of seven children. Although, Ba was his pride and joy, he kept her captive through her illness. Ba's poetry caused Robert Browning to fall in love with her and wish to meet her. The two poets' friendship blossomed through their letters; after they met face to face it soon became love. Soon Ba's father was the only thing standing in the way of their true happiness.

The book begins with a curious statement which holds your attention through the first few chapters. "How Do I Love Thee?" becomes very interesting after Ba and Robert finally meet face to face. The author's incorporation of the love poems of Elizabeth Barret Browning and Robert Browning was terrific addition to the story. The end was disappointing, but the book as a whole was a fantastic true love story of two amazing poets.

I've read other poems but no such poem like one written by a browning.The world lost one great poet

The romantic story of 2 poets who fell in love at mid-life, married, escaped to Italy, and lived happily for 15 years until Elizabeth's death. The author discusses the lives of the poets amongst their friends, acquaintances, other writers, & artists in Italy where living was less expensive and the climate more favorable. There are many cute stories about their son Pen and how the couple disagreed over various aspects of his unbringing. Also touched upon are the previous generations of both the Barretts and the Brownings and their history in Jamaica. Besides learning about the the Brownings, this book gives you a good feel of what life was like in the middle 19th century. Lots of B&W illustrations throughout the book.

A wonderful biography of a marriage between two genius poets, Dared and Done drew me in with such force and speed that I was almost glad of being ill myself so as to have an excuse to stay in bed and finish it. Markus has managed to convey her own excitement at relating such an intriguing story and did what a good author should do - made me want to delve into these poets' lives and their poetry even more.

Some of the speculation I did not agree with such as EBB's father not wanting his children to marry because of possible African blood. The birth of Pen Browning should have eradicated that concern. We may never understand the strange, cruel elder Barrett and fortunately, Dared and Done doesn't hinge on the theory. I did want to know more about the conniving Sophia Eckley - her cause of death for example, since she played such a huge role in the Browning marriage. I was also curious about EBB's illness - oddly, we never do get a diagnosis - only her maintenance cure of morphine and ether.

Remarkably, EBB had the greater reputation as a poet during the Barrett-Browning marriage with Robert Browning for many years being considered the lesser poet. That can make for trouble in the most loving of marriages and re-witnessing the devotion these two gifted poets demonstrated repeatedly is both exceptional and inspiring.

The Brownings hold a special place in my world, especially EBB. "Sonnets From The Portuguese" speaks with the eloquence, dignity and passion of the human ideal behind the flaws and veils of life and lovers (both RB and EBB's poetry are available on disc). Especially the last ten sonnets. EBB wrote not only about love and lovers, but about the human condition. She lived an insulated life yet was by nature a worldly and sophisticated soul. RB struggled with his inability to support his family, living off of EBB's inheritance annuity. Through this biography I was better able to appreciate his humaness and struggle, though I am still inclined toward EBB and her poetry. They were the sum of many contradictions, the big one being that they were so English (formal and proper) yet Bohemian in their liberal thinking. Both lovers and artists in the same household, in the same relationship, in the same struggle to survive and create (they do remind me of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's struggle and life together). While the book probably told the whole story, at least as much as a biographer can research and reveal, I still felt something lacking. I wanted the story to go on a little longer, a little deeper. I knew quite a bit about EBB before I began the book, I learned much more about her heritage and conflicts by reading this biography. My appreciation is much greater. It's a shame that we Moderns let so much of our heritage lay dormat (literaturewise) in the vaults of the "old days". To sip and savour the lives and poetry of the past is something we should cherish and celebrate. This book points in that direction. I strongly recommend this to all lovers of RB & EBB and poetry.

This is a great, even epic poem, but it can not be considered the definitive ninteenth-century work by any means. It can not be considered in any way to measure against such other epic poems, such as the classics (Homer, Vergil, Langland, Chaucer, etc.), later epics along the lines of Pope's "The Rape of The Lock" or Goethe's "Faust," and, most especially, Milton's "Paradise Lost," the great English epic poem above all others (if somewhat more esoteric to nowaday's "well-read" intellectuals). The "Aurora Leigh" has also unfortunately suffered the stigma of being a work solely concerned with feminism and social commentary. But I digress. The "Aurora Leigh" is an amazing work to explore, a true landmark, despite its flaws (of which there are honestly a few), in both the English language and ninteenth century studies. The Norton Critical Edition is wonderful, complete with well-organized and relevent supplementary literature (such as interpretive notes, essays, etc.). A great work to explore, though remain aware that this is a single interpretation of the ninteenth century, and that E.B.B., for all her gifts, was not the "shining light" of the time (there are writers just as good from the period, such as her husband Robert Browning).

E.B.B. set out to outstrip Milton and does so in an amazingly original way. Aurora Leigh is a novel in blank verse that is actually longer than Paradise Lost! She combines the genre expectations for a woman writer--the novel--with an audacious bid for poetic immortality. The book tells a good story but it also works as a formidable reminder to her contemporary poets that the novel is taking over and poets must make sure that they are writing in the spirit of the age.

Consciously imitating Jane Austen in the opening paragraphs, Virginia Woolf exercises more self-control in this novel than in any other and the result is prose which is less self-indulgent, more lucid, less experimental, more precise if less adventurous than you might expect of this author. The given facts exert a narrative discipline and perhaps Woolf intended it as a book for children. Whatever, it is the product of a gifted writer not straining for effect, a model for young writers to imitate: not the final word on an animal's sensibility and the narrative excitement comes mostly from the Barret-Browning storyline: but an easy, enjoyable, well-crafted read.

I bought and read Flush with some scepticism. While I can't praise Virginia Woolf enough, I tend to shy away from animal stories. Flush, however, is the exception to the rule. My scepticism soon dissipated and I was thrown into a world more human than most written worlds. Flush is among the most sympathetic and beautiful character sketches I have ever come across. This is a very different book for Woolf and I couldn't be more glad that she took the chance to write something that seems so trivial. There is feeling of release in the way it is written, but it is not flippant. Rather, it makes the character of Flush that much more accessible to the reader.

I LOVED this book. It was recommended to me by my best friend after she read it, and, believe me, it was worth it.I had a lot of trouble finding the book, but that was OK. It was a fantastic storey, and I really thought that some of the paragraphs were beautifully written. I also have a red cocker spaniel, just like the one on the cover of the Penguins Classics series cover, and I found myself looking at my dog to see if the descriptions and facts given were right. They were. What was the most remarkable thing was that this book was written based on a poem of Flush. ~Gina~

I do not like many 19th-century English poets, but Elizabeth Barrett Browning is one that I do. Her Sonnets from the Portuguese are some of the most honest love poems I have read, and the other poems in this selection are a good reminder that she tackled many social issues as well. However, as a dog person, my favorite poem has to be To Flush, My Dog, a tribute to her faithful companion.