The great number of books and articles on Browning and his work is shown
by the Bibliography of Biography and Criticism prepared by John P.
Anderson of the British Museum and printed in William Sharp's _Life of
Robert Browning_. The selection to be given here can hardly more than
suggest this large amount of material.
The 1888-9 edition of Browning's _Works_ by Smith, Elder and Company
incorporates Browning's last revisions and his own punctuation. The
Macmillan edition in nine volumes in 1894 reproduces this text.
For biographical material important books are:
_The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett 1845-1846_, two
volumes, 1902, Harper Brothers.
_The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Edited with Biographical
Additions by Frederic G. Kenyon._ Macmillan, 1897. (Two volumes in one,
1899.)
_The Life and Letters of Robert Browning_ by Mrs. A. Sutherland Orr in
1891. A new edition, revised and in part rewritten by Mr. Frederick G.
Kenyon, was brought out by Houghton, Mifflin and Company in 1908. Mrs.
Orr and Mr. Kenyon were both friends of Browning and could speak with
authority on many details of his life.
_Robert Browning, Personalia_, by Edmund Gosse. Houghton Mifflin and
Company, 1890. This book consists of a reprint of two articles, one from
_The Century Magazine_ on "The Early Career of Robert Browning," and one
from _The New Review_ entitled "Personal Impressions." These articles
are of exceptional interest because Mr. Gosse lived near Mr. Browning at
Warwick Crescent and they were on terms of close friendship. In
_Critical Kit-Kats_, 1896, Mr. Gosse gives the story of _Sonnets from
the Portuguese_.
_Robert Browning._ In _Bookman Biographies_, edited by W. Robertson
Nicholl. Hodder and Stoughton, London. Many interesting illustrations.
_The Century Magazine_ for 1900 and 1902 gives Mrs. Bronson's account of
Browning at Asolo and at Venice.
For general handbooks see:
_The Browning Cyclopædia._ Edward Berdoe, Macmillan, 1902. Elaborate
analysis of each poem. Many textual notes. Interpretations often
involved and far-fetched to the point of being untenable.
_Handbook of Robert Browning's Works._ Mrs. A. Sutherland Orr. First
edition, 1885; sixth edition, 1891. Republished by Bell and Sons,
London, 1902. Explanatory analysis of each poem. Edition of 1902
contains complete bibliography of Browning's works. Written at the
request of the London Browning Society.
For criticism see, as books varying widely in point of view and scope,
but each of distinct interest:
_An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry._ Hiram
Corson. Boston, 1886.
_An Introduction to the Study of Browning._ Arthur Symons. London,
Cassell and Company, 1886.
_Life of Robert Browning._ William Sharp. Walter Scott and Company,
London, 1897.
_The Poetry of Robert Browning._ Stopford A. Brooke. Crowell and
Company, 1902.
_Robert Browning._ G. K. Chesterton. Macmillan, 1903.
_Robert Browning._ C. H. Herford. Dodd, Mead and Company, 1905.
_Interpretations of Poetry and Religion_, by George Santayana,
Scribners, 1900, contains an interesting presentation of Browning's work
in a chapter entitled "The Poetry of Barbarism."
_Browning Study Programmes_ by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke,
Crowell and Company, 1900, is a series of studies on separate poems or
on groups of poems. Often very suggestive and helpful. In _Poet-Lore_,
edited by Miss Clarke and Miss Porter, are, _passim_, many other
valuable studies and notes on Browning. The Camberwell edition of
Browning's poems, edited by Miss Clarke and Miss Porter with excellent
annotations, was published by Crowell and Company in 1898.
_The London Browning Society's Papers_ and _The Boston Browning
Society's Papers_ contain much valuable material on separate poems or on
various phases of Browning's life and work.