Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax.
Portrait by Herbert Rose Barraud, c. 1888
Portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning.
Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1853 by Harriet Hosmer.
Browning after death.
Victorian literature is English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). The 19th century is considered by some to be the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for British novels. It was in the Victorian era that the novel became the leading literary genre in English. English writing from this era reflects the major transformations in most aspects of English life, from scientific, economic, and technological advances to changes in class structures and the role of religion in society. The number of new novels published each year increased from 100 at the start of the period to 1000 by the end of it. Famous novelists from this period include Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, the three Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling.
'Carlyle and Tennyson talked and smoked together.' by J. R. Skelton, 1920
The Brontë sisters wrote fiction rather different from that common at the time.
Lord Tennyson, the Poet Laureate
Charles Darwin's work On the Origin of Species affected society, throughout the Victoria era, and still does today.