Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) - photo 1
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) - photo 2
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) - photo 3
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) - photo 4
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) - photo 5
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Lot 78
15.12.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 20 160
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1108877
Lot 78 | Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Estimate value
£ 15 000 – 25 000
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Six autograph letters signed (‘Elizabeth Barrett Browning’) to [Dinah] Mulock, Paris and London, 21 January – 17 August [1852]
13 pages in total, various sizes (110 x 78mm to 160 x 104mm). Five envelopes. Provenance: Arthur A. Houghton, Jnr (1906-1990); his sale, Christie's, 13 June 1979, lot 71.

A mutual literary appreciation, a mysterious voice whispered on the wind, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s views on marriage: letters to the young authoress Dinah Craik. ‘I hear from England that you have dedicated a book to me [The Head of the Family, 1852] with too kind and most touching words’, for which EBB thanks her correspondent, although she has not seen the book yet; ‘I read a book of yours once at Florence, which first made [me] know you pleasantly, and afterwards […] there came a piercing touch from a hand in the air – whether yours also, I cannot dare to guess – which has preoccupied me a good deal since. If I speak to you in mysteries, forgive me’ [21 January 1852]. She had intended to wait until seeing the book to write again, but Mr Chapman (of Chapman and Hall) ‘is slow in finding what he calls his opportunities’; it brought tears to her eyes to have their mysterious connection confirmed, for she was indeed ‘the voice which called “Dinah” in the garden […] certainly I did call from Florence’. Further, EBB confesses that she had enquired in vain after the anonymous author who had dedicated ‘Lines to Elizabeth Barrett Browning on her Sonnets’ to her some years earlier, so was glad to have made Dinah’s acquaintance [27 April 1852]. In the third letter, after Robert Browning has secured [The Head of the Family], EBB praises Dinah's ‘undeniable talent and faculty, combined with high and pure aspiration’, but offers a criticism of the hero’s marriage: ‘I am romantic about love – oh, much more than you are, though older than you. A man’s life does not develop rightly without it’, mentioning Pen Browning, and declaring herself not a Bonapartist but a Democrat [2 June 1852]. The final letter sees her trying to arrange a meeting in London between other engagements: ‘If you knew how I am turned round & round in London in perpetual gyration – like a fakir, without his prospect of ultimate inspiration by giddiness. It’s the effect of coming home for a few weeks only, you see’ [17 August 1852].

Dinah Craik's [née Mulock] best-known novel, John Halifax, Gentleman (1856), the archetypal story of a poor boy who makes good through honesty, initiative, and hard work, became one of the nineteenth century's best-selling books. Unfortunately, its very popularity somewhat damaged the author's standing among intellectuals, where earlier works such as The Head of the Family (1852) had consolidated her reputation as a popular writer who delineated complex emotional states with unusual power and understanding.

Letters 1, 2 and 3 are published in The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1897, vol. 2, pp.44, 67 and 72.
[offered with:] letter from the publisher Smith, Elder & Co, 5 May 1896, returning the six letters to George Lillie Craik after they had been copied for potential publication.
Place of origin:England, France
Auction house category:Letters, documents and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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