The Ring and the Book, Browning's 21,000 line epic, is widely regarded as his masterpiece. This is the third, and final, volume of the Oxford edition covering this work, comprising the monologue of Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, and then the glowing conclusion to the work as a whole: the monologues of Pope Innocent XII and of Guido in his prison-cell prior to execution, and then the witty, ironic envoi of Book XII. The commentary in this edition contains a wealth of new contextual material that illuminates Browning's work in sometimes surprising ways. The copy text of 1888-9, the final edition of Browning's lifetime, has been scrupulously examined, both in relation to compositors' errors, and Browning's own final corrections to the text: eighty-nine emendations to accidentals, and nineteen emendations to substantives, produce a text as near as possible to Browning's final intentions. Appendix A presents previously unknown source material, concerning the 'cadaver synod' of 897, from Browning's father's historical notebooks. The Afterword gives a fresh view of the real history of the Franceschini murder case, based on new research in the archives in Arezzo.

This is an edition of the first third of Browning's 21,000-line masterpiece The Ring and the Book, a poem which Henry James called a `monstrous magnificence'. The editors throw new light on how the poet wrote this Italian murder story and give all the background annotation needed to understand it.

This is the second instalment of Browning's great murder-story set in the Italy of the 1690s, The Ring and the Book, a poem which Henry James called a 'monstrous magnificence'. Here Browning lets the central characters of his poem - the corrupt aristocrat and murderer Franceschini, his victim, and her rescuer - tell the story in their own words.

Part of the highly successful Complete Critical Guide to English Literature series, this volume offers students the ideal introduction to the work of Robert Browning. Accessibly written throughout, the Guide covers:
* biographical details
* information on the historical and social contexts of Browning's work
* an overview of the full range of his work
* a survey of the major critical debates surrounding him and his work.


Related link: http://www.literature.routledge.com/criti calguides/

Part of the highly successful Complete Critical Guide to English Literature series, this volume offers students the ideal introduction to the work of Robert Browning. Accessibly written throughout, the Guide covers:
* biographical details
* information on the historical and social contexts of Browning's work
* an overview of the full range of his work
* a survey of the major critical debates surrounding him and his work.


Related link: http://www.literature.routledge.com/criti calguides/

Volume 15 in The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Browning presents poetry Browning wrote in his seventies, his last two volumes: Parleyings (1887) and Asolando (1889). The former is the poet's last sustained meditation on life and on his times, a nine-section credo covering religion, history, poetry, politics, art, and music. Asolando is a coda to his whole oeuvre, a mixture of short love lyrics, historical monologues and anecdotes, light verse, and poems which are quite sui generis, all grouped around the theme of 'fancies and fact'. Both volumes are presented here with previously unknown sources, a wealth of new contextual material, and many textual nuances clarified, giving a fresh view of the last phase of Browning's career. What emerges is a poet more seriously Christian, Protestant, and Liberal than previously supposed, more interested in Britain's destiny and Empire, more enmeshed in the local battles of the 1880's and a writer of considerable range and wit.