Robert Browning | First Editions
1812 - 1889
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright, whose mastery of the dramatic monologue established his reputation as one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax.
Early praise for Browning's work was put forth by Dickens, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Wordsworth; however, his obscure 1840 poem Sordello damaged his reputation as a master poet, and his career took more than a decade to recover. Post-Sordello disaster, Browning's work can be seen to move away from the Shelleyan forms of his early period, and is of a more personal style. In 1846 Browning married the older poet Elizabeth Barrett, who at the time was considerably better known than himself. Their union resulted in one of history's most famous literary marriages. The couple went to live in Italy, which features frequently in his work.
When Browning died in 1889, he was regarded as a sage and philosopher-poet who had made contributions to Victorian social and political discourse through his writing. Unusually for a poet, societies for the study of his work were founded while he was still alive. Such Browning Societies remained common in Britain and the United States until the early 20th century.
See below our stock of Robert Browning First Editions, fine bindings, and signed copies.
Results 1 - 6 (of 6)
The Statue and the Bust.
London: John Lane, 1910. [POETRY] FIRST EDITION. Duodecimo (15 x 12cm), pp.46 [1]. Publisher's green cloth with gilt tooling to front board and gilt lettering to spine. 6 illustrated plates including the frontispiece and 3 other in-text illustrations including a 'finis' illustration. All plates are present, some offsetting to flyleaves..... More
The Pied Piper of Hamelin. With 35 Illustrations by Kate Greenaway, Engraved and Prnted in Colour by Edmund Evans.
London: George Routledge and Sons, n.d. 4to. Publisher's light brown glazed pictorial boards, dark brown cloth spine, green end papers, all edges tinted green. Corners bumped and frayed, extremities rubbed and slightly scuffed; boards dusty. Inner hinges starting; gathering showing at few places. Very good indeed. As Schuster & Engen..... More
The Pied Piper of Hamelin. A Child's Story by Robert Browning, set forth in a series of designs and decorative borders by Harry Quilter, M.A., Barrister-at-Law, and written in ornamental text by Mary, his wife.
London: Harry Quilter, 1898. [Children's Illustrated] FIRST QUILTER-ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Quarto (33 x 27cm), pp.[60]. Every page sumptuously engraved with illustrations and wide decorative margins by Harry and Mary Quilter. Each leaf separated with a tissue guard. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles and decoration to spine and upper. A clean..... More
Fifine at the Fair.
London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1872. [Poetry] FIRST EDITION. Small octavo (18 x 12cm), pp.[xii]; 171; [1]. Publisher's brown cloth over bevel edged boards, gilt titles to spine, black double ruling to boards, blue endpapers, untrimmed edges. Scholarly notes in black ink throughout. Endpapers toned, ownership inscription to half title..... More
The Poetical Works of Robert Browning. With Portraits.
London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1909. [Poetry] FINELY BOUND BY BICKERS. Two volumes in one. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.xvi; 786. With two tissue-guarded frontispiece illustrations of Browning. Blue full morocco to boards, gilt titles and raised bands to spine. Gilt roll-tooled dentelle to turn-ins. Blue endpapers. All edges gilt..... More
The Poetical Works of Robert Browning. With Portraits [Two Fore-Edge Paintings].
London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1897. [Poetry] FORE-EDGE PAINTING. Octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.xvi; 748, pp.viii; 786. Two volumes bound as one. With an engraved portrait of the poet as frontispiece to each volume. Attractively bound in the 'West End' style, in full red crushed morocco, gilt dentelle to turn-ins..... More
Results 1 - 6 (of 6)