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.