The Swan's Nest

A tender and engrossing historical novel by a former National Book Award finalist about the unlikely love affair between two great 19th-century poets, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, even as their families were determined to keep them apart. On January 10, 1845, a struggling, middle-class English poet named Robert Browning wrote a letter to a famous and wealthy invalid few people had ever seen. "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett," he wrote, "and I love you too." For the next five months, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett corresponded about each other's poetry, she insisting that he could not possibly love her, dreading the moment when he would see her as she truly was, although privately she composed a series of sonnets about her love for him. On September 12, 1846, knowing that her family in particular was opposed to the union, they married in secret and left, as her doctor had long recommended, for the unpolluted air of Italy, risking death, disinheritance, and near-certain poverty. In her bag, she carried drafts of the sonnets and all 286 of Robert's letters. Many writers have fallen in love with and married other writers, and most of those relationships ended horribly--see Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. McNeal brilliantly tells the story of how Robert and Elizabeth first fell in love with each other's words, and once they met face-to-face, they became even more devoted to one another. Although her family doubted his intentions and worried over Elizabeth Barrett's health, and her father never spoke to her again after their union, the Brownings overcame all of these barriers to be together. Sensitively and lyrically written, as rich as the lovers' own poetry, The Swan's Nest will sweep up readers in this triumphant story of these two historical figures holding steadfast in the truth and strength of their love.

• | Author: Laura McNeal
• | Publisher: Algonquin Books
• | Publication Date: Mar 12, 2024
• | Number of Pages: NA pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 1643753207
• | ISBN-13: 9781643753201