Karoline’s Reviews > Aurora Leigh > Status Update

A verse novel is a hard sell but oh my word I LOVED this. A Charlotte Bronte plot with Elizabeth Gaskell interests told as a prolonged, interior, confessional reflection reminiscent of Augustine, wrestling with modernity, social reform, vocation, men and women's work, and love and ending - with a nod to Dante - at daybreak in Italy before a vision of the New Jerusalem. Love my girl EBB.

Why hello St. John Rivers - I mean Romney Leigh! Remarkably strong Jane Eyre parallels here in Book II. Now I'm trying to think of other Victorian heroines who make a conscious choice AGAINST the zealous social reformer and commit to less tangible service - love or poetry. Gaskell's North and South presents an interesting variation on this pattern.

The Victorian novel nobody ever thinks about because it's written in verse!