J. Alfred's Reviews > Aurora Leigh

Barrett Browning's first published work (she was 14) was a long poem on the battle of Marathon in imitation of Pope. This, one of her last works, is her take on the epic: it is a brooding, Romantic thing, full of anxiety about the place of art in society and the place of the woman writer in the artistic tradition. It's The Odyssey mixed with Pride and Prejudice (sort of), and it is very much worthwhile, especially if one likes her Sonnets from the Portugese (one should!).