Best Selling Books by Robert Browning

"Porphyria''s Lover" is Browning''s first ever short dramatic monologue, and also the first of his poems to examine abnormal psychology. In the poem, a man strangles his lover – Porphyria – with her hair. Porphyria''s lover then talks of the corpse''s blue eyes, golden hair, and describes the feeling of perfect happiness the murder gives him. Although he winds her hair around her throat 3 times to throttle her, the woman never cries out. The poem uses a somewhat unusual rhyme scheme: A,B,A,B,B, the final repetition bringing each stanza to a heavy rest. Robert Browning (1812–1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, and in particular the dramatic monologue, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humor, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax. The speakers in his poems are often musicians or painters whose work functions as a metaphor for poetry. "Porphyria''s Lover" is Browning''s first ever short dramatic monologue, and also the first of his poems to examine abnormal psychology. In the poem, a man strangles his lover – Porphyria – with her hair. Porphyria''s lover then talks of the corpse''s blue eyes, golden hair, and describes the feeling of perfect happiness the murder gives him. Although he winds her hair around her throat 3 times to throttle her, the woman never cries out. The poem uses a somewhat unusual rhyme scheme: A,B,A,B,B, the final repetition bringing each stanza to a heavy rest.

"Life and Letters of Robert Browning By Mrs. Sutherland Orr Robert Browning was one of the greatest English poets during the Victorian era. Browning ''s poetry is remarkable for its use of irony, dark humor, and social commentary.This is a biography which was edited by Mrs. Sutherland Orr that also includes many of the great poet''s letters." -- Amazon.com

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the disappearance or death of a great number of kids from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, leading the kids away from the town never to return. In the 16th century the story was expanded into a full narrative, in which the piper is a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service, he retaliates by turning his power that he put in his instrument on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore and has also appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm and Robert Browning, among others. Using the Verstegan/Wanley version of the tale and adopting the 1376 date, Browning''s verse retelling is notable for its humor, wordplay, and jingling rhymes. Robert Browning (1812-1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, and in particular the dramatic monologue, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humor, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax. The speakers in his poems are often musicians or painters whose work functions as a metaphor for poetry.

Presents the history of the Byzantine Empire from the sixth to the fifteenth century in terms of the political events, art, literature, and thought of Byzantine society.

The Pied Piper pipes the village free of rats, and when the villagers refuse to pay him for the service he exacts a terrible revenge.