Wrote Virginia Woolf of Aurora Leigh in 1931. 'We laugh, we protest, we complain - it is absurd, it is impossible, we cannot tolerate this exaggeration a moment longer - but, nevertheless, we read to the end enthralled. What more can an author ask?' Aurora Leigh (1856), Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic novel in blank verse, tells the story of the making of a woman poet, exploring 'the woman question', art and its relation to politics and social oppression. In addition to Aurora Leigh, this volume contains poetry from the several volumes of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's published poetry from 1826 to 1862, including The Cry of the Children (1843), Casa Guidi Windows (1851) and the British Library manuscript text of the 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' which records her courtship with Robert Browning.