'In 1840, as a man of twenty-eight, Robert Browning astounded the literary world with his poems 'Pauline', 'Paracelsus' and 'Sordello.'
One result of this fame was his acquaintance with a person whose talent and charm was to affect his whole destiny. This was Elizabeth Barrett.
He discovered her as the world discovered him - through her poetry. In 1844 she published a volume containing 'Lady Geraldine's Courtship.' After reading it, Robert Browning felt impelled to correspond with her, and eventually they met. From early girlhood Elizabeth had suffered from a spinal complaint, and was living a life of seclusion, dominated by her despotic father, who determined she should never marry.
An intense understanding and love grew between the two poets. By sheer willpower, Browning forced her to defy her father and to recover some measure of health. After a runaway marriage they went to Italy, where they started a lifelong struggle against Elizabeth's illness. Literary history has seldom recorded so ideal a partnership between husband and wife, while English poetry owes an immeasurable debt to the love story of the Brownings.' (p. 65)
