SOURCE: "Elizabeth Barrett Browning," in North American Review, Vol. LXXXV, No. 177, October, 1857, pp. 415-41.

In the excerpt that follows, Everett finds fault with several stylistic elements of Aurora Leigh, but finds that it succeeds primarily as a spiritual autobiography, tracing, as it does, the development and maturation of a woman and a poet.

[Elizabeth Barrett Browning's] poem, Aurora Leigh, contains some faults of a very different description; which appear to be caused, to a great degree, by carelessness. The style is at times diffuse; a fault, to which the freedom of blank verse can easily entice one of Mrs. Browning's ardent temperament. It is difficult to conjecture at what epoch of the story the book purports to have been written. It does not seem to have been written in the form of a journal, while the events were taking place; nor yet after the story was completed. It...