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Aurora Leigh Author Biography

Nationality 1: British

Birthdate: 1806

Deathdate: 1861

The oldest of Edward Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke's twelve children, Elizabeth Barrett was born on March 6, 1806. Part Creole, her family had derived great wealth from Jamaican sugar plantations for two hundred years but went to England to live the life of gentry at Hope End estate in Herefordshire. Educated at home, Barrett became an expert in several languages and the ancient classics. At age fourteen, she contracted a lung illness that lasted all her life and, at fifteen, suffered a spinal injury that contributed to chronically ill health. In 1828, her mother died, and then, in 1832, the family fortune declined, causing the Barretts to move to the coastal town of Sidmouth for three years before settling in London. In 1838, she returned to the coast to recuperate from a serious illness. There, Barrett's favorite brother,...
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