Aurora Leigh (1856), Elizabeth Barrett Brownings epic novel in blank verse, tells the story of the making of a woman poet, exploring the woman question, art and its relation to politics and social oppression. The texts in this selection are based in the main on the earliest printed versions of the poems. What Edgar Allan Poe called her wild and magnificent genius is abundantly in evidence. In addition to Aurora Leigh, this volume contains poetry from the several volumes of Elizabeth Barrett Brownings published poetry from 1826 to 1862, including Casa Guidi Windows (1851), Songs for the Ragged Schools of London (1854) and the British Library manuscript text of the Sonnets from the Portuguese (1846) which records her courtship with Robert Browning.