The Ring And The Book

Maybe 3.5. The premise was fascinating, and I liked how Robert Browning explored the complexity of true and reliability with all his different narrators. There were some very fantastic moments - but it is quite long for the story it's telling and sometimes felt a little slow.......more

The overwhelming question which pursued me as I worked my way through the over six hundred pages of this epic poem, and struggled to come to terms with its copious notes explaining its many classical, literary and biblical allusions was: ‘What so possessed Browning to undertake such a massive effort......more

I first read he Ring and the Book when I was young, about thirty. Rereading the poetic novel again at fifty proved to be a very different experience. The journey of my life illuminated far too many of the episodes that make up the variety of tellings of the horrible tragedy. I found myself disturbed......more

An absolutely amazing novel...I mean poem. Nothing short of astonishing--light years ahead of its time. I might be wrong, but I believe his wife, Elizabeth, died shortly before he wrote this. If only we all could convert our sorrow into acts of genius. His Pope is one of the great all time character......more

My 4th time reading this book--the subject of my senior English seminar paper in undergrad, long ago--and I see new things in this hundreds-page long poem, every time I read it. The language is difficult, and requires a bit more attention than I'm able to give it, sometimes, but the poet did a maste......more