The Poetical Works of Robert Browning Volume IX The Ring and the Book Books IX-XII

Contemporary Review, August, 2004

The Poetical Works of Robert Browning Volume IX The Ring and the Book Books IX-XII. Stefan Hawlin and T. A. J. Burnett, editors. Clarendon Press, Oxford. [pounds sterling]85.00. xix 408 pages. ISBN 0-19-818671-1. This ninth volume in what has become the definitive edition of Browning's works brings the poet's famous poem to its conclusion.

The editors have examined the text of 1888-9, set it against Browning's corrections to earlier editions and errors by typesetters and made 108 emendations of which nineteen were substantive changes and the rest, minor. The four final 'books' of the poem are individually introduced and there is the now standard plethora of footnotes explaining the editors' changes. Of great use to students and scholars are the three appendices. The first, 'The Cadaver Synod' was taken from Browning's father's notebooks and gives us a new insight into Browning's historical basis for the poem. The second concerns the variants between his edition and the Yale version whilst the third gives a list of compositors. The Afterword somewhat surprisingly comes after the Appendices and is by Michael Meredith (the general editor) and Signora Simonetta Berbeglia and is entitled 'The Truth behind the Franceschini Murder Case'. This is a fascinating piece of research which shows the relationship between Browning's poem and the facts behind Guido Franceschini's murder of his wife, Pompilia. As before the editors are to be heartily congratulated on a masterly piece of editing. (P.P.F.)