Best known work

• Aurora Leigh, 1856

Other well known work(s)

• Sonnets from the Portuguese, 1850

Genres

• Poetry
• Travel Writing / Translation

Nom de plume

"Ba", Elizabeth Moulton Barrett

Social class

Upper class

Parental background

Descended from Jamaican sugar plantation owners and brought up in a mansion. Disinherited by her father upon her marriage but lived comfortably with her husband.

At publication of best known work

• Age: 50
• Marital status: Married
• Number of children: 1

Physical description

In EBB's ODNB entry Marjorie Stone quotes from a letter written to painter Benjamin Robert Haydon in the 1840s in which she describes herself as: "five feet one high, ... eyes of various colours as the sun shines ... [n]to much nose ... but to make up for it, a mouth suitable to a larger personality - oh, and a very little voice." In an 1882 tribute to Barrett Browning, J Fitzgerald Molloy describes her as follows: "Her face was strikingly impressive; her eyes were large and luminous, shaded with long lashes; her brows arched and well marked; the mouth and chin rather large and firm; a mass of dark curls fell at either side of her face, and strongly contrasted the delicate hue of her complexion." (Tinsley's Magazine, Vol 30, Apr 1882).

Did you know?

Her first volume of poetry was published when she was just thirteen. 

Additional information

A brief biography can be found on the British Library pages and a more comprehensive guide on the Victorian Web.