SOURCE: Petch, Simon. “Law, Narrative, and Anonymity in Browning's The Ring and the Book.” Victorian Literature and Culture 20 (1992): 311-33.

In the following essay, Petch examines the narrative methodology of The Ring and the Book, noting its use of techniques of legal discourse.

Nobody has ever had much to say for the anonymous voices who speak in books II-IV of The Ring and the Book. “Half-Rome,” “The Other Half-Rome,” and “Tertium Quid” have consistently attracted less attention than other parts of the poem.¹ In critical studies of the poem they invariably get lumped together or ignored. Even their main advocate, Louise Snitslaar, offers her case only as “a vindication of these minor characters” (28), and a lonely attempt to shift attention in commentary on The Ring and the Book from character to plot, which involves some detailed consideration of these books, has isolated Bruce McElderry as a voice in the...