Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘novel in verse’ is an epic poem that voices with enchanting beauty and literary courage the perspective of Victorian women. Aurora Leigh forges her own path to become a poet, successfully proving her worth, defying the ideals of her era, and rescuing her spirit from the suppression of a routine domestic life. Infusing the work with her own experience and passion, Browning produced a true masterpiece. With young readers today regularly extolling this ‘piece of heaven’, it is clear that the passing of time has proved beyond doubt her ‘wild and magnificent genius’ (Edgar Allan Poe).
In this intelligent reading by Lucy Scott, Aurora Leigh’s qualities are illuminated for all to hear.