DRAMATIS PERSONAE (First Edition, 1864)

London: Chapman & Hall, 1864

8vo, 250pp. Original hardcover binding, gilt lettering to spine.

Browning wrote the collection in London, where he had returned with his son after the death of his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was his first publication after a nine-year hiatus. During this time, Browning's reputation was fluctuating, and Dramatis Personae along with The Ring and the Book, which is widely considered his greatest work, were enough to begin a critical re-evaluation of the writer.

The poems in Dramatis Personae are dramatic, with a wide range of narrators. The narrator is usually in a situation that reveals to the reader some aspect of his personality. Instead of speeches that are intended for others' ears, most are soliloquies. They are generally darker than the poems found in Men and Women, his previous collection, and along with The Ring and the Book these poems embody a turning point in Browning's style. Browning's poetry after this point most notably touches on religion and marital distress, two potent issues of his time period. (wikipedia.com)

Condition: Fair. Minor bumps to corners of boards, sunning, chipping and shelfwear to spine. Splitting to gutters between endpapers and pastedowns, and to gutters between some of the pages. Signatures H and I of pages coming loose, only held in place by stitching towards top of spine. Light foxing throughout, especially so to the first and last few pages. Mark in pencil to front pastedown. Text however is still overall clean.