Aurora Leigh," contained in THE YALE REVIEW A NATIONAL QUARTERLY

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1931. Good.. Large quarto. Original blue printed wrappers, signatures sewn. Vol. XX Summer 1931 No. 4. [LXIV,649-864,LXV-LXXII pp.]  Wrapper's lap-edges with small nicks, short rub at spine edge, faint ex-library stamp on upper wrapper, unused library card to recto of lower wrap; bookplate of the noted Virginia Woolf, Hogarth Press, Bloomsbury collector, William Beekman, affixed to verso of upper wrapper, some shelf wear, else good.

First appearance of this essay, "Aurora Leigh," [677-690 pp]. In short, Woolf, writing as a Modernist in criticism of the work of Victorian writers, begins by discussing the irony of how the Brownings, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett, are better known for their personal lives than their literary works. She notes that many people are familiar with their romantic story but have never read their poetry. She then moves on to critique the works of the Brownings. Woolf suggests that Robert Browning's work has lost its vigor and significance, and his style is considered verbose.  

As for Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Woolf states that her work is largely unread and unexamined, with her style being seen as slipshod and her mind as confused and excessive. Woolf then focuses on "Aurora Leigh", describing it as a masterpiece in embryo. She suggests that the novel-poem's genius is still in a prenatal stage, waiting for the final stroke of creative power to bring it into being. She also discusses the character Aurora's struggle with the expectations of her society. "If therefore we take 'Aurora Leigh' from the shelf and open it, it is not so much in order to read it as to muse with kindly condescension over this token of bygone fashion: it is not a book but a dusty mantle with fringes and furbelows that our grandmothers actually wore; a cluster of wax fruit that they stood in a glass case on the drawing-room table among albums, views of Jerusalem, and handsome models of the Taj Mahal carved in alabaster." 678-679 p. KIRKPATRICK & CLARKE C332.