A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th Ed.)

Readers trying to follow Robert Browning's many poems will find a guide arranged by both publication history and subject. Sutherland Orr explains how a proposed primer became a descriptive index, with sections on dramas, argumentative poems, love lyrics and poems concerned with religion and art. The sixth edition adds a bibliography and revises references to bring the handbook into line with later editions of Browning's works.

Orr's method appears in her account of Caliban, who imagines a creator whose motives resemble his own and becomes fearful during a thunderstorm. Her discussion then turns to A Death in the Desert, interpreting its imagined scene with St. John through questions of faith and doubt. These passages show a handbook that combines summaries with interpretation. Its indexes, grouped discussions and attention to individual speakers make it useful for readers who want help connecting Browning's dramatic voices with the ideas they express.