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Centered around the scene of a murder trial, the story of The Ring and the Book is narrated in the form of multi-character monologues. The ambitious 21,000 line poem is sure to captivate today's reader just as much as its unconventional form surprised those who first rummaged through its pages when it was first published..
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First published January 1, 1869
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About the author
Robert Browning
2,702 books449 followersRobert Browning (1812-1889) was a British poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.
Browning began writing poetry at age 13. These poems were eventually collected, but were later destroyed by Browning himself. In 1833, Browning's "Pauline" was published and received a cool reception. Harold Bloom believes that John Stuart Mill's review of the poem pointed Browning in the direction of the dramatic monologue.
In 1845, Browning wrote a letter to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, professing that he loved her poetry and her. In 1846, the couple eloped to Europe, eventually settling in Florence in 1847. They had a son Pen.
Upon Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death in 1861, Browning returned to London with his son. While in London, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1869), both of which gained him critical priase and respect. His last book Asolando was published in 1889 when the poet was 77.
In 1889, Browning traveled to Italy to visit friends. He died in Venice on December 12 while visiting his sister.
Browning began writing poetry at age 13. These poems were eventually collected, but were later destroyed by Browning himself. In 1833, Browning's "Pauline" was published and received a cool reception. Harold Bloom believes that John Stuart Mill's review of the poem pointed Browning in the direction of the dramatic monologue.
In 1845, Browning wrote a letter to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, professing that he loved her poetry and her. In 1846, the couple eloped to Europe, eventually settling in Florence in 1847. They had a son Pen.
Upon Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death in 1861, Browning returned to London with his son. While in London, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1869), both of which gained him critical priase and respect. His last book Asolando was published in 1889 when the poet was 77.
In 1889, Browning traveled to Italy to visit friends. He died in Venice on December 12 while visiting his sister.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
October 31, 2022
Maybe 3.5. The premise was fascinating, and I liked how Robert Browning explored the complexity of true and reliability with all his different narrators. There were some very fantastic moments - but it is quite long for the story it's telling and sometimes felt a little slow.
September 28, 2021
The overwhelming question which pursued me as I worked my way through the over six hundred pages of this epic poem, and struggled to come to terms with its copious notes explaining its many classical, literary and biblical allusions was: ‘What so possessed Browning to undertake such a massive effort?’ The murder of a wife and her parents by the husband was a famous case in Italy in the late 1690s, but Browning wrote his work in England in the 1860s. The best answer I’ve been able to surmise was oddly reminiscent of a story I heard a long time ago. A king on an island had a strange beast called an elephant land on his shores. He sent his blind wise men to report on it, and when they returned they variously informed him that the creature was like the trunk of a tree, a flat wall, a large hose and a rope hanging down from heaven (for the elephant’s leg, side, trunk and tail respectively.) The moral is: what is reality? Is not our perception of the truth so dependent on our peculiar perception of it that we never can truly comprehend it accurately?
The murder of Pompilia, Pietro and Violante by Guido and his four accomplices is a fact admitted by all. But there the mystery begins rather than ends. Was Pompilia unfaithful to Guido, her husband, with Caponsacchi, the priest with whom she ran away to Rome from Arezzo? Did Violante and Pietro share some of the blame for disguising the truth about Pompilia’s birth and therefore, of the true ownership of her dowry? Did Guido’s brother, Paolo, share some of the responsibility for over-exaggerating the benefits of marriage to Guido to Violante? Did Violante wilfully deceive Pietro in rushing Pompilia off to marry Guido against her husband’s wishes? Did Guido forge the love letters from Caponsacchi to Pompilia and from her to him in order to test his wife’s faithfulness, and later, to provide proof of his violated honor? How much responsibility do both the church and the state share for their unwillingness to deal with Pompilia’s earnest claims of mistreatment by her husband? And later, were they also to blame for the unsatisfactory solution to the problem posed by her initial flight? Who was the father of Pompilia’s child? Since the church and the law seemed to give him no support, was Guido’s offended sense of honour so great and his duty as a masterful husband so strong as to justify the extreme measures he takes in response to his believing himself to have been made a cuckold? And was the Pope right or wrong in upholding the sentence imposed by the court?
One reads each of the twelve books into which the poem is divided, most of which present the protestations of a different character in their complex story, and comes away thinking ‘Yes – he/she could be right…’ Then, one reads the next book and gets an entirely different perspective on the case. Thus, it seems a logical deduction that Browning was arguing that reality itself is such a changeable, mutable, ephemeral and elusive quarry that it will always and forever be beyond out grasp. Written in the same decade that saw the publication of Marx’s Das Kapital and Darwin’s Origin of the Species, this work seems to represent another chink in the armour of established orthodoxy, one felt too at the same time by Arnold, whose ‘darkling plain’ had ‘ignorant armies clash by night’. Industrialization, commercialism, secularism, urbanization: all these forces seem by the 1860s to have brought about a questioning of what one can really believe in. Relativism was forcing traditional beliefs to fall away. Or, as a commentator in the final Book exclaims, ‘ the enunciation of my text / [is] ... one proof of that “God is true / And every man a liar” – that one who trusts / To human testimony for a fact / Gets this sad fact – himself is proved a fool.’
A second question bothered me as I plowed my way through each of the twelve books, most of which are roughly two thousand lines long: why did Browning write in blank verse? Why not simply recast The Old Yellow Book, his source, as it contained many papers relating to the actual crime and subsequent trial and which he’d found at a market in Florence, as a novel or a work of history? The weight of textual support his many references and quite frequent use of Latin expressions made necessary was another issue. Still, despite these concerns, I found the work relatively easy and enjoyable to read. The use of first person narration in each book works to highlight the perspective of each different character, and the verse definitely helps their unique personalities come alive. The bombastic defence lawyer, the very earnest and devout Pope, the hard headed, parsimonious prosecutor, the simple honesty of Caponsacchi, Guido’s earnest sense of being shamefully treated and above all, Pompilia’s blushing simplicity and innocent nature were all quite moving. I must confess though that Browning can be awfully thick at times: even rereading several of his more turgid passages did little to illuminate what it was he was trying to say.
Sure, it over two weeks to finish, but it was truly quite an enjoyable and thoughtful experience. Highly recommended.
The murder of Pompilia, Pietro and Violante by Guido and his four accomplices is a fact admitted by all. But there the mystery begins rather than ends. Was Pompilia unfaithful to Guido, her husband, with Caponsacchi, the priest with whom she ran away to Rome from Arezzo? Did Violante and Pietro share some of the blame for disguising the truth about Pompilia’s birth and therefore, of the true ownership of her dowry? Did Guido’s brother, Paolo, share some of the responsibility for over-exaggerating the benefits of marriage to Guido to Violante? Did Violante wilfully deceive Pietro in rushing Pompilia off to marry Guido against her husband’s wishes? Did Guido forge the love letters from Caponsacchi to Pompilia and from her to him in order to test his wife’s faithfulness, and later, to provide proof of his violated honor? How much responsibility do both the church and the state share for their unwillingness to deal with Pompilia’s earnest claims of mistreatment by her husband? And later, were they also to blame for the unsatisfactory solution to the problem posed by her initial flight? Who was the father of Pompilia’s child? Since the church and the law seemed to give him no support, was Guido’s offended sense of honour so great and his duty as a masterful husband so strong as to justify the extreme measures he takes in response to his believing himself to have been made a cuckold? And was the Pope right or wrong in upholding the sentence imposed by the court?
One reads each of the twelve books into which the poem is divided, most of which present the protestations of a different character in their complex story, and comes away thinking ‘Yes – he/she could be right…’ Then, one reads the next book and gets an entirely different perspective on the case. Thus, it seems a logical deduction that Browning was arguing that reality itself is such a changeable, mutable, ephemeral and elusive quarry that it will always and forever be beyond out grasp. Written in the same decade that saw the publication of Marx’s Das Kapital and Darwin’s Origin of the Species, this work seems to represent another chink in the armour of established orthodoxy, one felt too at the same time by Arnold, whose ‘darkling plain’ had ‘ignorant armies clash by night’. Industrialization, commercialism, secularism, urbanization: all these forces seem by the 1860s to have brought about a questioning of what one can really believe in. Relativism was forcing traditional beliefs to fall away. Or, as a commentator in the final Book exclaims, ‘ the enunciation of my text / [is] ... one proof of that “God is true / And every man a liar” – that one who trusts / To human testimony for a fact / Gets this sad fact – himself is proved a fool.’
A second question bothered me as I plowed my way through each of the twelve books, most of which are roughly two thousand lines long: why did Browning write in blank verse? Why not simply recast The Old Yellow Book, his source, as it contained many papers relating to the actual crime and subsequent trial and which he’d found at a market in Florence, as a novel or a work of history? The weight of textual support his many references and quite frequent use of Latin expressions made necessary was another issue. Still, despite these concerns, I found the work relatively easy and enjoyable to read. The use of first person narration in each book works to highlight the perspective of each different character, and the verse definitely helps their unique personalities come alive. The bombastic defence lawyer, the very earnest and devout Pope, the hard headed, parsimonious prosecutor, the simple honesty of Caponsacchi, Guido’s earnest sense of being shamefully treated and above all, Pompilia’s blushing simplicity and innocent nature were all quite moving. I must confess though that Browning can be awfully thick at times: even rereading several of his more turgid passages did little to illuminate what it was he was trying to say.
Sure, it over two weeks to finish, but it was truly quite an enjoyable and thoughtful experience. Highly recommended.
October 3, 2013
I first read he Ring and the Book when I was young, about thirty. Rereading the poetic novel again at fifty proved to be a very different experience. The journey of my life illuminated far too many of the episodes that make up the variety of tellings of the horrible tragedy. I found myself disturbed almost constantly by memories of my own experiences touched by this tale. The poetry is marvelous. The variety of narratives create an amazing tapestry of truth and untruth. The structure is fascinating. The plot and characters are just awful, in a delightful way. The humanity is undeniable. Few novels reach this level of artistry. Browning is always incredible.
November 27, 2013
An absolutely amazing novel...I mean poem. Nothing short of astonishing--light years ahead of its time. I might be wrong, but I believe his wife, Elizabeth, died shortly before he wrote this. If only we all could convert our sorrow into acts of genius. His Pope is one of the great all time characters--well, they all are, so well drawn you can walk up and greet them. Multi-points of view, relativism galore, and above all FUNNY. I'm amazed at how often I laughed out loud while reading this. Put some time aside and read this.
August 16, 2014
Has ever a native speaker of English more marred his mother tongue? Made more difficult the mundane? Made reading less pleasurable? Every time I read Browning, I swear it’s the last time. Then, for some reason, I forget just how awful the experience was and I decide to read a different work. This time I thought I’d read The Ring and Book.
I recognize the words (well, most of them) as English. The syntax, though, has been so tortured and contorted as to be unrecognizable. The music, if there ever was any, has been lost beneath a din of incomprehensibility. Browning has taken a salacious tale and rendered into a baffling spume of words and sounds. I defy anyone to try diagramming some of the sentences in this book. I can make more sense of Chaucer’s Middle English than Browning’s contemporary English.
I only finished Book I. If I ever try to read more of this, please schedule an intervention for me.
I recognize the words (well, most of them) as English. The syntax, though, has been so tortured and contorted as to be unrecognizable. The music, if there ever was any, has been lost beneath a din of incomprehensibility. Browning has taken a salacious tale and rendered into a baffling spume of words and sounds. I defy anyone to try diagramming some of the sentences in this book. I can make more sense of Chaucer’s Middle English than Browning’s contemporary English.
I only finished Book I. If I ever try to read more of this, please schedule an intervention for me.
May 16, 2022
One of the most challenging books I've ever read but one that I'll be thinking about much. This is written in verse and the archaic language that Robert Browning wrote it in to make it feel authentically from 1698 was what made reading this so challenging. I did have a fair amount that went over my head but I was blown away by the passages I did understand. This was worth all the effort!
Read
January 3, 2014Robert Browning's version of 'In Cold Blood'. I read this over Christmas and and fell deeply in love with it. By this point in his career, Browning had mastered the monologue and with his discovery of the story of this sensational murder and subsequent trial, he crafted his masterwork. Pompilia, Pope Innocent XII, and Guido are particularly acute - the first for her heart, the second for the gentle authority and understanding with which he signs the death warrant, and the third for the drugstore Nietzsche pose which ultimately collapses into fear and panic. The narrative framing that opens and ends the poem is incisive and humane as are the insightful explorations on the meaning of 'truth' - 'Is fiction which makes fact alive, fact too?/ The somehow may be thishow' (I, 706-707).
By the way, I read R. Altick's edition the Yale Press 'English Poets' series. The binding split irreparably when I was approximately half-way finished. It is shameful that a school with Yale's reputation could not publish a more durable book. The very same thing happened to my edition of 'The Prelude' from the same series.
By the way, I read R. Altick's edition the Yale Press 'English Poets' series. The binding split irreparably when I was approximately half-way finished. It is shameful that a school with Yale's reputation could not publish a more durable book. The very same thing happened to my edition of 'The Prelude' from the same series.
August 13, 2020
My 4th time reading this book--the subject of my senior English seminar paper in undergrad, long ago--and I see new things in this hundreds-page long poem, every time I read it. The language is difficult, and requires a bit more attention than I'm able to give it, sometimes, but the poet did a masterful job of producing the voices of the various characters involved in this 17th-century Italian murder trial. I will most likely read this again, ten years from now!
April 17, 2025
Did not read all of this, but what I did, so weirdly good and thought-provoking.
February 20, 2009
Do I get to add this to my list if I never finished it and have no plans to finish it?
April 2, 2025
Only read the absolute minimum of this that I had to for a directed study course and will probably never finish it. It's unfortunate that the premise is so interesting but the actual experience of reading it is a repetitive slog with only a few moments of genuine emotion mixed in. I did also enjoy some of Browning's little wink wink nudge nudge humor.
June 25, 2025
I think this may not be an opinion given much voiced in 2025, but I think that when it is taken in small doses, this poem has a significant weightiness and artistic beauty in the verbosity of its strength of execution that can be appreciated on the level of Shakespeare. Three stars.
February 11, 2014
This Shearsman edition is another one of their "classics" series. It's the second I've read, their 'Tottle' is marvelous. I like the simple layout, the poem on the page, one column in a decent sized font, with decent margins, and an absence of footnotes or other clutter. There's a brief intro which provides the necessary background to the case, and a small glossary of specific names and latin terms. But the text is allowed space and reading is a pleasure.
I have nothing new to say about this book, except having read it I'm going to have to reread it. There's a point where I suspect most readers will give up, but my advice is stick with it.
Browning had mastered the Interior monologue to the point where he could take one over 2,000 lines and bring the speaker alive, creating character not just in what is said, but by running self interest or self deception against the literal meaning of the words to create something so much more than "A Speech". The book raises the question of what is truth. And resolutely refuses to answer for the reader.
The "facts' seem simple. A triple murder is committed. The question is not, 'who dunnit', but who is guilty, and was the murder justified. Arguing the case reveals a mess. A elderly man (Guido) married a young wife (Pompilia) for money. His In-laws lied, they married their daughter for a title, found the title empty and then disowned the daughter (then took her back). A young wife who may or may not have been unfaithful, runs away with a priest who was dressed in civilian clothing and who may or may have been her lover. Letters that may or may not have been forged, though if forged why? A legal system that conspicuously fails at each step of the story to impose itself until it is too late and a church that fails to do its task of caring for the weak.
The book is divided into 12 parts, in the first and last Browning addresses the reader, each of the other is one person speaking their version of events. Guido the husband is allowed two speeches. By about book six you've read five versions of the same story and it all starts to blur, and then Browning skillfully slips sideways by Introducing the dying wife, Pompilia's version.
The two lawyers who follow her are fine creations: Browning lets the creation of character take over from the content which he's now established, and then they are followed by the Pope's monologue , which has been called a masterpiece. His thoughtful movement towards the point where he signs the death sentence is then juxtaposed against the explosion of Guido's second monologue, an extended howl of outrage and defiance, which collapses as he's taken out to be executed.
I have nothing new to say about this book, except having read it I'm going to have to reread it. There's a point where I suspect most readers will give up, but my advice is stick with it.
Browning had mastered the Interior monologue to the point where he could take one over 2,000 lines and bring the speaker alive, creating character not just in what is said, but by running self interest or self deception against the literal meaning of the words to create something so much more than "A Speech". The book raises the question of what is truth. And resolutely refuses to answer for the reader.
The "facts' seem simple. A triple murder is committed. The question is not, 'who dunnit', but who is guilty, and was the murder justified. Arguing the case reveals a mess. A elderly man (Guido) married a young wife (Pompilia) for money. His In-laws lied, they married their daughter for a title, found the title empty and then disowned the daughter (then took her back). A young wife who may or may not have been unfaithful, runs away with a priest who was dressed in civilian clothing and who may or may have been her lover. Letters that may or may not have been forged, though if forged why? A legal system that conspicuously fails at each step of the story to impose itself until it is too late and a church that fails to do its task of caring for the weak.
The book is divided into 12 parts, in the first and last Browning addresses the reader, each of the other is one person speaking their version of events. Guido the husband is allowed two speeches. By about book six you've read five versions of the same story and it all starts to blur, and then Browning skillfully slips sideways by Introducing the dying wife, Pompilia's version.
The two lawyers who follow her are fine creations: Browning lets the creation of character take over from the content which he's now established, and then they are followed by the Pope's monologue , which has been called a masterpiece. His thoughtful movement towards the point where he signs the death sentence is then juxtaposed against the explosion of Guido's second monologue, an extended howl of outrage and defiance, which collapses as he's taken out to be executed.
May 1, 2022
El anillo y el libro es el gran poema narrativo o dramático de la Inglaterra victoriana, una obra prestigiosa pero bastante olvidada por el lector del siglo XXI. Hay que reconocer que si bien algunas premisas podrían acercar la obra al gusto moderno (el relato por parte de una decena de personas, incluidos el asesino y la víctima agonizante, de un crimen cometido en la Italia del siglo XVIII, con lo que ello conlleva de diversidad de puntos de vista e intereses), el género al que pertenece, el largo poema narrativo en verso, en la modalidad de monólogo dramático que el mismo Browning inventó, no puede quedar más alejado de las costumbres del lector moderno.
Y es una pena porque la obra, si bien larga y algo irregular, es una obra maestra, que mantiene un enorme interés.
El problema del género es grave. Desde que los isabelinos, con Shakespeare a la cabeza, demostraran hasta qué punto podía amoldarse al pentámetro yámbico tanto el ritmo del habla corriente como a la expresión de los pensamientos más complejos, los ingleses lo han utilizado para casi todo. Desde entonces parece haber una obsesión en la literatura británica por utilizar el potencial de este verso con finalidades narrativas, dramáticas, y para captar la expresión de todo matiz psicológico, dignificando contenidos que en prosa considerarían que tendrían menos prestigio. Este mismo metro utilizarán Milton, Wordsworth o Keats en sus grandes poemas narrativos, y posteriormente Elisabeth Barret Browning en su novela en verso Aurora Leigh, T.S. Eliot en su teatro moderno, o Frost para reflejar el carácter profundo del habla americana. Browning no fue el primero, pero sí el más brillante, en sacar ese habla de su contexto teatral, para crear con él el monólogo dramático, un género tan artificioso como interesante: un personaje, generalmente anormal en lo sicológico, se explaya ante un auditorio al que no permite la réplica, durante tiradas de versos que cada vez serán más largas. Robert Browning empezó sus monólogos con breves poemas (a veces rimados como My last Duchess), y sus monólogos clásicos como Andrea del Sarto o Fra Filipo Lippi se alargan en torno a 250 versos. En El anillo y el Libro, cada monólogo ronda los 2000 versos, o lo que es lo mismo unas 50 páginas de prosa.
El lector tiene que evaluar lo que se gana y se pierde con este versificarlo todo. No podemos dudar que este ritmo, esta cadencia siempre presente y al mismo tiempo disimulada con un uso continuo del encabalgamiento, puede aportar la misma belleza que justifica el uso del verso en una tirada teatral de Shakespeare. Con antecedentes como el teatro isabelino, es difícil criticar el uso del verso para poner voz a los personajes.
Por lo demás a menudo estos monólogos son poesía de la más imaginativa, y un gran talento de Browning consiste en amalgamar con facilidad un habla directa y funcional con reflexiones y descripciones de alto carácter lírico. Pero con Browning también es cierto que le resta legibilidad, necesariamente hay que amoldar el discurso a la métrica, y ello hace que a menudo se tenga que forzar la sintaxis, obliga a un uso de la elipsis gramatical que puede resultar desconcertante, y dan una enorme densidad al lenguaje.
La otra limitación, el uso del monólogo en sí, es casi más importante, debido a la longitud inusitada de los mismos. La interacción con el auditorio no se hace obviamente con preguntas y respuestas, sino con ocurrentes aunque a veces oscuras alusiones.
El lenguaje no es especialmente difícil, pero las limitaciones anteriores hacen que la lectura pueda resultar demasiado densa y fatigosa.
De hecho puede resultar más legible en una traducción en prosa que en el original, y esta es la decisión que muchos traductores han tomado.
Como poeta, y al margen de sus monólogos, Browning resulta pesado. No conozco ningún otro poeta tan capaz de hacer que cualquier metro de arte menor nos suene al más pesado alejandrino. La poesía lírica de Browning tiene toda la pesadez que asociamos a la época victoriana.
Una vez que el lector acepta las reglas del juego de un libro como este, la lectura puede resultar apasionante. Desgraciadamente Browning se dejó llevar por la grandiosidad. Cada Libro resulta siempre un poco demasiado largo. Muchos aspectos y desarrollos se alargan innecesariamente.
La estructura es muy inteligente y hábil:
- un Libro introductorio, sobre cómo el poeta descubrió la historia que va a contar
- 3 libros sobre cómo el pueblo ve los asesinatos, a favor de las víctimas, a favor del criminal, y un tercer punto de vista escéptico y despreciativo
- 3 libros de los protagonistas: Guido, Pompilia y Caponsacchi. La parte puramente narrativa de los hechos: asesino, víctima y testigo directo, o marido, mujer y amante; cuentan cada uno los hechos desde su perspectiva.
- 2 libros correspondientes al proceso judicial: los Libros de la defensa y la acusación, que se plantean como un divertido Scherzo entre los dramáticos e intensos tres monólogos anteriores, y los metafísicas digresiones de los dos cantos siguientes, son los más problemáticos para el lector actual y pueden resultar francamente aburridos. Su sentido del humor resulta algo machacón, abundan las frases latinas, y se alargan una eternidad.
- El libro correspondiente al juez, el papa Inocencio XII. La condena del mal.
- La confesión de Guido: más que una justificación del crimen, una justificación del mal.
- Libro final del autor.
Browning se documenta exhaustivamente acerca del proceso, para luego incluir determinantes modificaciones (Guido como hermano mayor y heredero del título). Su Pompilia tiene demasiado de paradigma femenino victoriano: intachable, toda pureza y fidelidad, pero aun así consigue hacerla real y conmovedora. Caponsacchi resulta creíble pero tan poco probable como debió resultar el personaje real. Guido es la gran creación de Browning y el personaje más interesante de la obra (en general en toda la literatura victoriana donde la bondad es tan arquetípica tan etérea e idealizada, los personajes malvados son los que tienen mayor corporeidad).
En conjunto un poema narrativo mayor, de lectura obligada a los amantes de la buena literatura y del verso, pero demasiado extenso y digresivo puede fatigar en una lectura de principio a fin.
Y es una pena porque la obra, si bien larga y algo irregular, es una obra maestra, que mantiene un enorme interés.
El problema del género es grave. Desde que los isabelinos, con Shakespeare a la cabeza, demostraran hasta qué punto podía amoldarse al pentámetro yámbico tanto el ritmo del habla corriente como a la expresión de los pensamientos más complejos, los ingleses lo han utilizado para casi todo. Desde entonces parece haber una obsesión en la literatura británica por utilizar el potencial de este verso con finalidades narrativas, dramáticas, y para captar la expresión de todo matiz psicológico, dignificando contenidos que en prosa considerarían que tendrían menos prestigio. Este mismo metro utilizarán Milton, Wordsworth o Keats en sus grandes poemas narrativos, y posteriormente Elisabeth Barret Browning en su novela en verso Aurora Leigh, T.S. Eliot en su teatro moderno, o Frost para reflejar el carácter profundo del habla americana. Browning no fue el primero, pero sí el más brillante, en sacar ese habla de su contexto teatral, para crear con él el monólogo dramático, un género tan artificioso como interesante: un personaje, generalmente anormal en lo sicológico, se explaya ante un auditorio al que no permite la réplica, durante tiradas de versos que cada vez serán más largas. Robert Browning empezó sus monólogos con breves poemas (a veces rimados como My last Duchess), y sus monólogos clásicos como Andrea del Sarto o Fra Filipo Lippi se alargan en torno a 250 versos. En El anillo y el Libro, cada monólogo ronda los 2000 versos, o lo que es lo mismo unas 50 páginas de prosa.
El lector tiene que evaluar lo que se gana y se pierde con este versificarlo todo. No podemos dudar que este ritmo, esta cadencia siempre presente y al mismo tiempo disimulada con un uso continuo del encabalgamiento, puede aportar la misma belleza que justifica el uso del verso en una tirada teatral de Shakespeare. Con antecedentes como el teatro isabelino, es difícil criticar el uso del verso para poner voz a los personajes.
Por lo demás a menudo estos monólogos son poesía de la más imaginativa, y un gran talento de Browning consiste en amalgamar con facilidad un habla directa y funcional con reflexiones y descripciones de alto carácter lírico. Pero con Browning también es cierto que le resta legibilidad, necesariamente hay que amoldar el discurso a la métrica, y ello hace que a menudo se tenga que forzar la sintaxis, obliga a un uso de la elipsis gramatical que puede resultar desconcertante, y dan una enorme densidad al lenguaje.
La otra limitación, el uso del monólogo en sí, es casi más importante, debido a la longitud inusitada de los mismos. La interacción con el auditorio no se hace obviamente con preguntas y respuestas, sino con ocurrentes aunque a veces oscuras alusiones.
El lenguaje no es especialmente difícil, pero las limitaciones anteriores hacen que la lectura pueda resultar demasiado densa y fatigosa.
De hecho puede resultar más legible en una traducción en prosa que en el original, y esta es la decisión que muchos traductores han tomado.
Como poeta, y al margen de sus monólogos, Browning resulta pesado. No conozco ningún otro poeta tan capaz de hacer que cualquier metro de arte menor nos suene al más pesado alejandrino. La poesía lírica de Browning tiene toda la pesadez que asociamos a la época victoriana.
Una vez que el lector acepta las reglas del juego de un libro como este, la lectura puede resultar apasionante. Desgraciadamente Browning se dejó llevar por la grandiosidad. Cada Libro resulta siempre un poco demasiado largo. Muchos aspectos y desarrollos se alargan innecesariamente.
La estructura es muy inteligente y hábil:
- un Libro introductorio, sobre cómo el poeta descubrió la historia que va a contar
- 3 libros sobre cómo el pueblo ve los asesinatos, a favor de las víctimas, a favor del criminal, y un tercer punto de vista escéptico y despreciativo
- 3 libros de los protagonistas: Guido, Pompilia y Caponsacchi. La parte puramente narrativa de los hechos: asesino, víctima y testigo directo, o marido, mujer y amante; cuentan cada uno los hechos desde su perspectiva.
- 2 libros correspondientes al proceso judicial: los Libros de la defensa y la acusación, que se plantean como un divertido Scherzo entre los dramáticos e intensos tres monólogos anteriores, y los metafísicas digresiones de los dos cantos siguientes, son los más problemáticos para el lector actual y pueden resultar francamente aburridos. Su sentido del humor resulta algo machacón, abundan las frases latinas, y se alargan una eternidad.
- El libro correspondiente al juez, el papa Inocencio XII. La condena del mal.
- La confesión de Guido: más que una justificación del crimen, una justificación del mal.
- Libro final del autor.
Browning se documenta exhaustivamente acerca del proceso, para luego incluir determinantes modificaciones (Guido como hermano mayor y heredero del título). Su Pompilia tiene demasiado de paradigma femenino victoriano: intachable, toda pureza y fidelidad, pero aun así consigue hacerla real y conmovedora. Caponsacchi resulta creíble pero tan poco probable como debió resultar el personaje real. Guido es la gran creación de Browning y el personaje más interesante de la obra (en general en toda la literatura victoriana donde la bondad es tan arquetípica tan etérea e idealizada, los personajes malvados son los que tienen mayor corporeidad).
En conjunto un poema narrativo mayor, de lectura obligada a los amantes de la buena literatura y del verso, pero demasiado extenso y digresivo puede fatigar en una lectura de principio a fin.
Want to read
May 24, 2013This book originally purchased by a Maude Chudleigh on 30th December 1910; I purchased it second hand at Higgs Books Sydney for $2.50 around 1975, or very close to. Mostly I bought it for the cover, blue on blue embossed spirals of plants surround an archway of sorts. Spine has same spirals in gold. I just love the craftsmanship involved, including that it's survived a hundred years with only the flypaper turning sepia.
So sorry this isn't a "proper" review, just a mad bibliophile raving about how a book never read is still a "favourite" in my collection.
So sorry this isn't a "proper" review, just a mad bibliophile raving about how a book never read is still a "favourite" in my collection.
August 8, 2017
The Publisher's computer has no idea what poetry should look like
When you feed a text into your eBook generating machine, you do need to check the results afterwards -- especially if the text is poetry. Just a glance at any one page of this poem would have been enough to see how badly mangled it was. The poem is correctly formatted in this publisher's edition of Browning's complete works, so look for that instead.
When you feed a text into your eBook generating machine, you do need to check the results afterwards -- especially if the text is poetry. Just a glance at any one page of this poem would have been enough to see how badly mangled it was. The poem is correctly formatted in this publisher's edition of Browning's complete works, so look for that instead.
May 3, 2022
An extraordinarily satisfying read despite its challenges. Some of the twelve books were a joy, others had turgid moments but Browning's overall structure was clever and he has a tremendous ability to build character and ideas through dramatic monologue.
August 4, 2017
Difficult to read but well-worth it. Shakespearean in use of language, Browning proves he is the creator and master of dramatic monologue. This work could be studied for a lifetime and not exhausted.
December 3, 2023
Tras una larga y azarosa lectura, llego al fin de este libro mítico, tantas veces comentado y casi no leído, que ha tenido una muy tardía traducción al español y poca difusión. Browning compró en un mercadillo un "libro amarillo" que compilaba los diferentes testimonios, noticias, argumentaciones legales y morales sobre un crimen estremecedor, en relación del mismo afloran los más extraños detalles. Eso le lleva a la idea de componer, basándose en los hechos relatados y en su forma heterogénea, un largo poema narrativo, en que la épica ya no era el recuento de una hazaña, ya sea heroica, patriótica o teológica, sino simplemente el contraste de puntos de vista para contar una y otra vez lo mismo pero desde diferentes puntos de vista, hasta crear una dialéctica y debate interno, que lo que pone en duda es qué es la verdad. Sus límites, su enfrentamiento con la dialéctica.
El resultado es: un prólogo en el que Browning nos cuenta de las circunstancias del hallazgo del manuscrito, nos expone por tres veces los hechos, mostrando cada vez un aspecto nuevo de estos, y con ello da paso a lo que dice la opinión pública, para dar paso a la voz de sus protagonistas, tanto el asesino como las víctimas. De ahí, pasamos a la retórica de los dos juristas, el abogado del criminal y el fiscal. Luego, la determinación del Papa, para volver a una de las partes más extensas y más duras, la réplica del criminal, en que todo lo establecido se derrumba en un canto a la maldad justificada por sí misma. Y, finalmente, el poeta narrador retoma el último capítulo, llamado como el primero de misma manera que el libro, "El libro y el anillo", para dar paso a la última sentencia del caso, cuando ya parece todo resuelto, y la incertidumbre sobre lo ocurrido al bebé, hijo del criminal y la víctima, que sobrevivió a los hechos pero del cuál nada se sabe, como un final designio y dictamen, que siempre desconoceremos, de cuál fue la última sentencia del caso. El anillo se cierra así, y retorna a la memoria de Elizabeth Barret Browning, como en el final del primer canto, la destinataria del poema, que de alguna manera se erige en obra maestra para inmortalizar la memoria de la esposa y compañera poeta que falta.
Un libro duro de leer, en el monto en que los hechos discordantes dan paso a la retórica. A ello se le añade la falta muchas veces de referencias en forma de notas que ayuden a la lectura. Las numerosas que aparecen, en un 90%, se refieren a las citas utilizadas por el autor, sobre todo del Antiguo Testamento, luego del Evangelio, y en menor medida, de autores clásicos.
A esto se le añade el que no sea una edición bilingüe y el estar un tanto perdidos por una traducción que no acaba de ser suficiente, pese a que su esfuerzo es loable, colosal. Hay que recordar que Broning es conocido en lengua inglesa por su oscuridad.
La edición del libro es impecable, sin erratas, con un papel biblia de alta calidad y con muy buena impresión que permite que las más de 800 páginas apenas abulten lo que en otros libros harían 300. Un encuadernado resistente con cuadernillos cosidos.
Una joya, completamente inencontrable hoy en día.
El resultado es: un prólogo en el que Browning nos cuenta de las circunstancias del hallazgo del manuscrito, nos expone por tres veces los hechos, mostrando cada vez un aspecto nuevo de estos, y con ello da paso a lo que dice la opinión pública, para dar paso a la voz de sus protagonistas, tanto el asesino como las víctimas. De ahí, pasamos a la retórica de los dos juristas, el abogado del criminal y el fiscal. Luego, la determinación del Papa, para volver a una de las partes más extensas y más duras, la réplica del criminal, en que todo lo establecido se derrumba en un canto a la maldad justificada por sí misma. Y, finalmente, el poeta narrador retoma el último capítulo, llamado como el primero de misma manera que el libro, "El libro y el anillo", para dar paso a la última sentencia del caso, cuando ya parece todo resuelto, y la incertidumbre sobre lo ocurrido al bebé, hijo del criminal y la víctima, que sobrevivió a los hechos pero del cuál nada se sabe, como un final designio y dictamen, que siempre desconoceremos, de cuál fue la última sentencia del caso. El anillo se cierra así, y retorna a la memoria de Elizabeth Barret Browning, como en el final del primer canto, la destinataria del poema, que de alguna manera se erige en obra maestra para inmortalizar la memoria de la esposa y compañera poeta que falta.
Un libro duro de leer, en el monto en que los hechos discordantes dan paso a la retórica. A ello se le añade la falta muchas veces de referencias en forma de notas que ayuden a la lectura. Las numerosas que aparecen, en un 90%, se refieren a las citas utilizadas por el autor, sobre todo del Antiguo Testamento, luego del Evangelio, y en menor medida, de autores clásicos.
A esto se le añade el que no sea una edición bilingüe y el estar un tanto perdidos por una traducción que no acaba de ser suficiente, pese a que su esfuerzo es loable, colosal. Hay que recordar que Broning es conocido en lengua inglesa por su oscuridad.
La edición del libro es impecable, sin erratas, con un papel biblia de alta calidad y con muy buena impresión que permite que las más de 800 páginas apenas abulten lo que en otros libros harían 300. Un encuadernado resistente con cuadernillos cosidos.
Una joya, completamente inencontrable hoy en día.
November 7, 2025
Browning was a poet with a very academic cast of mind. Where there's beauty, it's not transcendent. Regardless, this is an intellectual achievement of the highest order if nothing else. The comparison to Rashomon isn't unwarranted, but by eschewing interior monologue in favor of Browning's favored form of the dramatic monologue, the work leapfrogs over the interiority of the Modernists who would follow him and lands squarely in the middle of the postmodern "spectacle". The entire affair is, in essence, a creature of text, of legal institutions, and of public speech, far more than it is an event that was experienced by several conscious individuals.
However, I'm a bit conflicted about it in the end. Browning's obvious talent and expertise are on full display along with his innovative mind, but there's something fundamental lacking from the work in total. Reminds me of what Orwell said about Wyndham Lewis, as if there's some "essential vitamin" missing in spite of the tremendous talent marshaled to the occasion. In other words, it's not unclear to me as to why this work is largely unread these days, even though some stripe of masterpiece it surely is.
However, I'm a bit conflicted about it in the end. Browning's obvious talent and expertise are on full display along with his innovative mind, but there's something fundamental lacking from the work in total. Reminds me of what Orwell said about Wyndham Lewis, as if there's some "essential vitamin" missing in spite of the tremendous talent marshaled to the occasion. In other words, it's not unclear to me as to why this work is largely unread these days, even though some stripe of masterpiece it surely is.
June 11, 2023
3.5… I read all except two accounts… oops.
June 21, 2023
Incredible scholarship on a masterpiece.
July 12, 2023
While the writing style was cool, this book hurt my brain to finish.
July 9, 2024
One of my favorite things I’ve ever read. Going back, I love my notes.
March 20, 2013
Like Collins before him, Browning turns to individual testimony to re-create an historical trial in Italy in which the court debates the merits of the case of Guido's murder of his wife Pompilia and her adopted parents. Pompilia, a very young wife, had complained of her husband beating her to a priest, who helped her escape. Guido was convinced she was cheating, claims to have caught them in the act and murdered her and her parents for it later. He murdered the parents too because they had married him to their daughter, only to take away her dowry by later admitting that she was adopted and not their true daughter. Pompilia had just borne a baby son to Guido, but the son is named after the priest--unclear whether the priest is actually the father. Pompilia testifies and later dies of her wounds. Guido is hung for his crime. Different witnesses and participants testify throughout this long, serialized narrative poem. The poet speaker speaks in the beginning and the end, calling the testimony a "ring" that unites Britain and Italy long ago. Shows the falsity of human report, and the "truth" that only art can portray.
"If precious be the soul of man to man
So, British Public, who may like me yet,
(Marry and amen!) learn one lesson hence
Of many which whatever lives should teach:
That lesson, that our human speech is naught,
Our human testimony false, our fame
And human estimation words and wind.
Why take the artistic way to prove so much?
Because, it is the glory and good of Art,
That Art remains the one way possible
Of speaking truth, to mouths like mine, at least." (lines 830-840)
"If precious be the soul of man to man
So, British Public, who may like me yet,
(Marry and amen!) learn one lesson hence
Of many which whatever lives should teach:
That lesson, that our human speech is naught,
Our human testimony false, our fame
And human estimation words and wind.
Why take the artistic way to prove so much?
Because, it is the glory and good of Art,
That Art remains the one way possible
Of speaking truth, to mouths like mine, at least." (lines 830-840)
August 4, 2010
I did not think I would like this poem at all, and I was astonished at how into it I got. The plot is fantastic and so unlikely - like a telenovela, but TRUE! I'm not a huge fan of dramatic monologues, but I think because in this book they're all talking about the same thing, and a little more of the story is revealed with each one, I really liked them. A great read for anyone who is a fan of Robert Browning.
July 29, 2012
Robert Browning's magnum opus. If you like 750 page epic poems that retell the same story from different perspective over and over again with one chapter nearly all in Latin, then this is for you. This is a daunting read but not nearly as painful as Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus". It truly is a fantastic poem but if it's not your thing, fear not as Dante Gabriel Rossetti didn't think much of it either...
January 6, 2013
Browning's epic murder story, narrated from multiple perspectives in a series of dramatic monologues, is heavy going but dense, complex, brilliant poetry. Browning adopts the twelve book structure and other trappings of epic but employs an innovative narrative approach, retelling the story from the perspective of various characters in each book. Plot is less important (and progressively so as the poem proceeds) than the dense interplay of thematic interests, allusions, and metaphors.
May 13, 2007
The Ring and the Book is Browning's novel-long poem about sex, murder, disguise and execution. He tells the same story from several different characters' points of view in flowing prose-like poetry. It's a little difficult but well worth the effort.
September 25, 2010
I love Robert Browning's poetry. I am indebted to Dr. Herring (since gone to glory) at Baylor for our introduction. Once class began, time seemed to slow as we wandered through Browning's work and Dr. Herring made it come alive. I wanted to take the class again but had no time.
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