WRITER

Robert Browning

1812 - 1889

Photo of Robert Browning

Icon of person Robert Browning

Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax. His early long poems Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835) were acclaimed, but his reputation dwindled for a time – his 1840 poem Sordello was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Shelleyan forms to a more personal style. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Robert Browning has received more than 2,788,148 page views. His biography is available in 54 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 52 in 2019). Robert Browning is the 1,378th most popular writer (up from 1,416th in 2019), the 1,048th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 1,129th in 2019) and the 123rd most popular British Writer.

Robert Browning is most famous for his poem "Pippa Passes" and his collection of poems "Men and Women."

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 59.22

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 54

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.36

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 5.43

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The pied piper of Hamelin
Juvenile Fiction
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.
Pippa passes
The ring and the book
Men and women
The complete works of Robert Browning Volume XVI
Pauline
English drama
An Inland voyage
Description and travel, Travel, Scots
Robert Louis Stevenson's 1878 travelogue, An Inland Voyage, details his canoeing trip through France and Belgium in 1876. Pioneering new ground in outdoor literature, this was Stevenson's first book. He had decided to become free from his parent's financial support so that he might freely pursue the woman he loved; to support himself he wrote travelogues, most notably An Inland Voyage, Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes and The Silverado Squatters. Stevenson undertook the journey with his friend, Sir Walter Grindlay Simpson, at a time when such outdoor travel for leisure was considered unusual and it resulted in this romantic and original work that still inspires travelers today.
Black Arrow
Crime, fiction, Fiction, historical, general, Fiction, war & military
New Arabian Nights
Classic Literature, Fiction, Nouvelles anglaises
During his residence in London, the accomplished Prince Florizel of Bohemia gained the affection of all classes by the seduction of his manner and by a well-considered generosity. He was a remarkable man even by what was known of him; and that was but a small part of what he actually did. Although of a placid temper in ordinary circumstances, and accustomed to take the world with as much philosophy as any ploughman, the Prince of Bohemia was not without a taste for ways of life more adventurous and eccentric than that to which he was destined by his birth.
The complete works of Robert Browning Volume XVI
Criticism and interpretation, Humanism, Children's poetry, English
Nineteen poems by Robert Browning include "My Last Duchess," "Porphyria's Lover," "Fra Lippo Lippi," and "Love among the Ruins."
The master of Ballantrae
Fiction, Absence and presumption of death, History
The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale is one of Stevenson's darker, more political novels. Two brothers are brought into conflict by the Jacobite rising of 1745, which tears their family apart.
Familiar studies of men and books
Literature, History and criticism, Biography
THESE studies are collected from the monthly press. One appeared in the NEW QUARTERLY, one in MACMILLAN'S, and the rest in the CORNHILL MAGAZINE. To the CORNHILL I owe a double debt of thanks; first, that I was received there in the very best society, and under the eye of the very best of editors; and second, that the proprietors have allowed me to republish so considerable an amount of copy.

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Robert Browning ranks 1,378 out of 7,302Before him are Hartmann von Aue, Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Rex Stout, Robert Wilson, Seymour Hersh, and Viktor Suvorov. After him are Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Mario Benedetti, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, and Aleksandr Kuprin.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1812, Robert Browning ranks 18Before him are Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Ascanio Sobrero, Maria Cristina of Savoy, Alfred Krupp, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, and Pertevniyal Sultan. After him are Natalia Pushkina, James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie, Friedrich von Flotow, Paul Abadie, Edward Lear, and Zuo Zongtang. Among people deceased in 1889, Robert Browning ranks 20Before him are Marie of Prussia, Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, Wilhelm Tempel, Giovanni Bottesini, and Maria Mitchell. After him are Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges, John Ericsson, Ignacy Domeyko, and Jules Dupré.

Others Born in 1812

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Others Deceased in 1889

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Robert Browning ranks 1,048 out of 8,785Before him are Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (1936), James Stirling (1926), John Nettles (1943), Glenn Hughes (1951), Robbie Williams (1974), and Twiggy (1949). After him are John Hanning Speke (1827), Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom (1768), Peter D. Mitchell (1920), Inigo Jones (1573), Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1900), and Reginald Pole (1500).

Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, Robert Browning ranks 123Before him are Matthew Lewis (1775), P. G. Wodehouse (1881), Neil Gaiman (1960), Lee Child (1954), Allan Pinkerton (1819), and James Murray (1837). After him are Jane Hawking (1944), Seamus Heaney (1939), Winifred Wagner (1897), Colin Dexter (1930), Elizabeth Siddal (1829), and Vita Sackville-West (1892).