海角大神

Sinking into 鈥淭he Swan鈥檚 Nest鈥� is like being cocooned in a down comforter.聽

Laura McNeal鈥檚 deeply researched historical novel is an ode to the great love between two 19th-century English Romantic poets, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning.

Her goal, as she describes it in the acknowledgments, 鈥渨as to tell the story of their romance without contradicting the known record.鈥� She found her title in 鈥淭he Romance of the Swan鈥檚 Nest,鈥� a poem that Elizabeth wrote in 1844, the year before she met Robert. Confined to her home by an undefined illness, the young poet聽felt she had little hope of romance or adventure beyond the page.聽The poem features a swan鈥檚 nest hidden among reeds that a young woman dreams of showing to an idealized lover. The eggs in the nest represent a wondrous sign of hope 鈥� an underlying theme of McNeal鈥檚 novel, along with patience, constancy, and deep trust.

Before they met in person, the two poets were drawn to each other by their writing 鈥� first through their poems, and then their letters. On the basis of Elizabeth鈥檚 poetry alone, Robert 鈥渁lready liked her. That far-off place you could reach only in lyric was the place she inhabited.鈥� He felt she was speaking directly to him.聽

Elizabeth, nicknamed Ba, was born in 1806, the oldest of 12 children. At the start of McNeal鈥檚 novel, she is feeling stuck and restless. Her unspecified malady has kept her largely housebound for years in the third-floor bedroom of the family鈥檚 crowded London house. She and her siblings are all under the thumb of their tyrannical father, Mr. Moulton-Barrett, who disapproves of all suitors, and especially a poor poet he feels certain must be after his daughter鈥檚 money.聽

Elizabeth is loath to go against her father鈥檚 wishes, but Robert will not be dissuaded. He is willing to accept whatever form their relationship takes.聽

The source of the Barretts鈥� wealth is their Jamaican sugar plantation, Cinnamon Hill, a business that became less lucrative after England鈥檚 abolition of slavery in 1834. As a consequence, Moulton-Barrett was forced to sell Hope End, the family鈥檚 prophetically named Hertfordshire home.聽

That loss, compounded by the tragic deaths of two sons, leaves him viciously determined to defend what remains of the family fortune. He adamantly refuses to recognize claims by illegitimate offspring of family members who, when sent to the West Indies to manage their colonial businesses, frequently kept formerly enslaved island women as mistresses. McNeal enriches her novel by weaving in moral issues tied to England鈥檚 legacy of colonialism and slavery.聽

Fortunately for Elizabeth, despite her confinement, she has absorbing work translating Aeschylus鈥� 鈥淧rometheus Bound鈥� and penning verse for which she is celebrated. Another advantage not shared by her siblings is her independent income, a legacy from her father鈥檚 mother (and therefore also from the spoils of the family plantation in Jamaica).聽聽

The Brownings鈥� family life is cheerier but more modest than the Barretts鈥�. As a young man, Robert鈥檚 father gave up a chance to get rich in the West Indies because he refused to countenance slavery. When Robert meets Elizabeth, his financial and career prospects aren鈥檛 as bright as hers. His literary reputation and sales have taken a hit after Alfred Tennyson and others declared his poems 鈥渙bscure and difficult.鈥� Elizabeth disagrees. She finds them 鈥渕esmerizing.鈥�

Robert鈥檚 enthusiasm for Elizabeth is unbridled. In his first letter to her, he gushes, 鈥淚 do, as I say, love these books with all my heart 鈥撀� and I love you too.鈥� By 1846, the two poets had exchanged 573 letters in much the same vein. (Published posthumously, they are still in print.)聽

The lack of restraint alarms Elizabeth鈥檚 family. Was Browning a fortune hunter, or 鈥渙ne of those men who was always declaring that he loved someone鈥� 鈥� including women he鈥檇 never met?聽

Elizabeth鈥檚 sister Henrietta grills him at a society dinner at which Charles Dickens is a guest of honor.聽Robert鈥檚 self-defense is robust: 鈥淲hat I wrote to your sister may have seemed impetuous, but it sprang from what I truly feel when I read her poems. Love, Miss Barrett, is the only word for what I feel. ... I have met her in the sense that matters to me. I know her better than many people ever know one another. Our minds are, in poems, open water. Crystal pools.鈥澛� 聽

Henrietta thinks: 鈥淚t was too much. ... No one said such things and meant them 鈥� Heavens, he was like Ba.鈥澛�

It鈥檚 no secret what happens 鈥� after all, 鈥淏a鈥� is known to this day, 163 years after her death in 1861, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Robert Browning, author of the much-anthologized 鈥淢y Last Duchess,鈥� has gone down in history as one of the most ardent husbands of all time. Elizabeth was no slouch at expressing her love for him either, as her 44 鈥淪onnets From the Portuguese鈥� attest. (鈥淢y Little Portuguese鈥� was a pet name for her husband.) Who hasn鈥檛 heard sonnet No. 43 鈥� 鈥淗ow do I love thee? Let me count the ways鈥� 鈥� that mainstay of wedding ceremonies and anniversary cards?

McNeal鈥檚 achievement is to dramatize how聽Elizabeth鈥檚 great escape from a severely limited life came to pass. In suitably lyrical language, 鈥淭he Swan鈥檚 Nest鈥� thrillingly captures a marriage of true minds and the triumph of hope, love 鈥� and poetry.聽