SOURCE: "Mrs. Barrett Browning—Aurora Leigh" in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. LXXXI, No. CCCCXCV, January, 1857, pp. 23-41.

In the following excerpt, Aytoun summarizes the plot of Aurora Leigh and gives it a mixed assessment; he criticizes some of the book's themes while admiring Browning's poetic style.

For the application of his gifts, every author is responsible. He may exercise them well and usefully, or he may apply them to ignoble purposes. He may, by the aid of art, exhibit them in the most attractive form, or his execution may be mean and slovenly. In the one case he is deserving of praise; in the other he is liable to censure. Keeping this principle in view, we shall proceed to the consideration of this new volume from the pen of Mrs. Browning,—a lady whose rare genius has already won for her an exalted place among the poets of...