Back in 2012 the correspondence (573 love letters) exchanged between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning which had been displayed at Wellesley College in Massachussets since 1930, were digitized in a collaborative project between Wellesley and Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Thanks to their work, we can see them just as they were written - with creased paper, fading ink, quill pen cross-outs, and even the envelopes they used.
The Guardian summarizes their love story as follows:
Barrett, one of the most well-known poets of the Victorian era, suffered from chronic illness and was in her late 30s when Browning first wrote to her in 1845 to tell her he admired her work.
In their fifth month of corresponding, they met for the first time, introduced by Barrett's cousin.
After more than a year of almost daily letters between them, the couple wed in secret in September 1846, defying her father's prohibition against her ever marrying. They fled from London to Italy, where doctors had told Barrett her health might improve. Her father disinherited her and never spoke to her.
"It's the fact that she defied her father, she was in ill health, they fell in love through letters, she left with hardly anything, " said Ruth Rogers, Wellesley's curator of special collections.
"If you want perfect romance, just read the letters," she said.
Browning wrote first, on Jan. 10, 1845, immediately establishing the intensity that would characterize the relationship:
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| First love letter sent by Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett in January 1845' Photograph: Steven Senne/AP Source: https://www.theguardian.com/ |
I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett, and this is no off-hand complimentary letter that I shall write, whatever else, no prompt matter-of-course recognition of your genius and there a graceful and natural end of the thing: since the day last week when I first read your poems, I quite laugh to remember how I have been turning and turning again in my mind what I should be able to tell you of their effect upon me…
Barrett responded just one day later, beginning: “I thank you, dear Mr. Browning, from the bottom of my heart. You meant to give me pleasure by your letter, and even if the object had not been answered, I ought still to thank you. But it is thoroughly answered.”
Barrett responded just one day later, beginning: “I thank you, dear Mr. Browning, from the bottom of my heart. You meant to give me pleasure by your letter, and even if the object had not been answered, I ought still to thank you. But it is thoroughly answered.”
If this post has pricked your curiosity, I invite you to visit the archive of the Browning letters and enjoy.
To close the post, a reflection by Eduardo Galeano (1940-2015) in one of his short stories from Los hijos de los días (2012).
Enero 23
Madre civilizadora
En 1901, al día siguiente del último suspiro de la reina Victoria, comenzaron en Londres sus solemnes pompas fúnebres.
No fue fácil la organización. Merecía una gran muerte esa reina que había dado nombre a toda una época y que había dado ejemplo de abnegación femenina vistiendo luto, durante cuarenta años, en memoria de su difunto marido.
Victoria, símbolo del imperio británico, dueña y señora del siglo diecinueve, había impuesto el opio en China y la vida virtuosa en su nación.
En el centro de su imperio, eran lectura obligada las obras que enseñaban a respetar las buenas maneras. El Libro de etiqueta, de lady Gogh, publicado en 1863, desarrollaba algunos de los mandamientos sociales de la época: había que evitar, por ejemplo, la intolerable proximidad de los libros de autores con los libros de autoras en los estantes de las bibliotecas.
Los libros sólo podían juntarse si el autor y la autora estaban unidos en matrimonio, como era el caso de Robert y Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
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| Street art in Cannaregio (Venezia) |
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