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Oxford University Press The Poetical Works Of Robert Browning Volume Ix: The Ring And The Book Books Ix-Xii by Edited by Stefan Hawlin , Edited by Tim Burnett
The Ring and the Book, Brownings 21,000 line epic, is widely regarded as his masterpiece. This is the third, and final, volume of the Oxford edition covering this work, comprising the monologue of Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, and then the glowing conclusion to the work as a whole: the monologues of Pope Innocent XII and of Guido in his prison-cell prior to execution, and then the witty, ironic envoi of Book XII. The commentary in this edition contains awealth of new contextual material that illuminates Brownings work in sometimes surprising ways. The copy text of 1888-9, the final edition of Brownings lifetime, has been scrupulously examined, both in relation to compositors errors, and Brownings own final corrections to the text: eighty-nine emendationsto accidentals, and nineteen emendations to substantives, produce a text as near as possible to Brownings final intentions. Appendix A presents previously unknown source material, concerning the cadaver synod of 897, from Brownings fathers historical notebooks. The Afterword gives a fresh view of the real history of the Franceschini murder case, based on new research in the archives in Arezzo.show more