A famous love affair and marriage of two great Victorian poets is the subject of Julia Markus' "Dared and Done." Robert Browning began writing to the invalid Elizabeth Barrett in 1845. She read his poetry and although older than him, had already hung his picture in her sick room, which he was eventually allowed to visit.
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Her tyrannical father had forbidden all of his adult children to marry, but despite the assurance that she would be disowned, the two were married in 1846 and went off to live on the continent, eventually settling in Florence. Elizabeth's father would never again speak to her.
Her health improved somewhat; although throughout the marriage she took morphine for medicinal purposes. She gave birth to one child, a boy nicknamed Pen. The couple had an idyllic relationship; their only disagreement seemed to be over Elizabeth's belief in spiritualism. She died in 1861.
The review of this Book prepared by Jack Goodstein