In 1846 Elizabeth Barrett rose from an invalid's bed to elope to Italy with Robert Browning. The secret courtship of the two poets—their long correspondence and their meetings in the shadow of Elizabeth's despotic and jealous father—has become one of the most famous and best-documented Victorian romances. The powerful myth of chivalrous rescue and miraculous recovery is the subject of Daniel Karlin's exciting and imaginative book. He gives a fresh account of the events of the courtship, based on a much closer study of the love letters than has been attempted before; and he shows how significant these letters are for an interpretation of the work of both poets.