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Demy octavo, [18cm/7 inches], full gilt-embossed olive-coloured cloth sans dust jacket, pp. 419, indexed. Please feel free to inquire as to particulars and/or additional snapshots. In exceptionally good condition. . Mrs. Alexandra Sutherland Orr,(1828 1903), the biographer of Browning, born on 23 Dec. 1828 at St. Petersburg, where her grandfather, (Sir) James Boniface Leighton, was court physician, was second daughter of Frederic Septimus Leighton (1800 1892), a doctor of medicine, by his wife Augusta Susan, daughter of George Augustus Nash of Edmonton. Frederic Leighton, Lord Leighton [q. v. Suppl. I], was her only brother. She was named Alexandra after her godmother the Empress of Russia. The family travelled much in Europe, and Alexandra was educated mostly abroad. Her health was always delicate. On account of her defective sight, most of her very considerable knowledge was acquired by listening to books read aloud to her. She married on 7 March 1857 Sutherland George Gordon Orr, commandant of the 3rd regiment of cavalry, Hyderabad contingent, and accompanied him to India. They were there during the Mutiny, and Mrs. Orr had a narrow escape from Aurungabad, her ultimate safety being due to the fidelity of Sheikh Baran Bukh. Orr died on 19 June 1858, worn out by the sufferings and privations endured in the Mutiny. He was gazetted captain and brevet major and C.B. on the day of his death. Mrs. Orr then rejoined her father, who, after sojourns in Bath and Scarborough, finally settled in London in 1869. Mrs. Orr's main interests lay in art and literature, and in social intercourse with artists and men of letters. Already in the winter of 1855-6 she had met, in Paris, the poet Robert Browning, with whom her brother was on intimate terms from early manhood. The poet's acquaintance with Mrs. Orr was renewed at intervals until 1869, when, both having fixed their residence in London, they became close friends. For many years he read books to her twice a week. Shortly after its formation in 1881, Mrs. Orr joined the Browning Society, became a member of the committee, wrote notes on various difficult points in Browning's poems, and was generous in money donations. The most important fruit of the connection was her illuminating 'Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning' (1885; 3rd edit. 1887); written at the request of some members of the society, and with the encouragement and help of the poet, the book is a kind of descriptive index, based partly on the historical order and partly on the natural classification of the various poems' (cf. Pref. 1885). The scheme of classification owed something to the suggestion of John Trivett Nettleship [q. v. Suppl. II]. The sixth edition (1892, often reprinted) embodied Mrs. Orr's final corrections. Seller Inventory # 24357
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Handbook To the Works of Robert Browning ...
Publisher: George Bell & Sons, London & New York
Publication Date: 1896
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: In quite good condition.
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Edition: 7th Edition.
