Robert Browning’s Complete Works, Vol. 10

Blending psychological complexity with narrative boldness, these three verse dramas delve into the contradictions of faith, desire, and public reputation. A ruined inheritance, a doomed affair, and a forgotten rivalry are each brought to life through Browning’s signature dramatic monologue. Together, the works reflect a master stylist’s fascination with inner conflict and social veneer in 19th-century Europe.Robert Browning (1812-1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, or Turf and Towers (1873) is a poem in blank verse about sexual intrigue, religious obsession and violent death in contemporary Paris and Normandy, closely based on the true story of the death, supposedly by suicide, of the jewelery heir Antoine Mellerio. Helen A. Clarke also contributed introductions and notes.