The Browning Cyclopaedia: A Guide to the Study of the Works of Robert Browning (Hardbound - 2017)

Browning, like James Joyce, demands elucidation. Browning is obscure, but he is, thanks to books like Browning Cyclopaedia by Edward Berdoe, no longer frightening. This is no ordinary book of ready reference. The author does not merely provide facts and items of information under alphabetically arranged entries; he also provides scholarly, critical and detailed commentary on obscure illusions and hidden meanings that abound in the poems of Browning. Each entry in the Browning Cyclopaedia, thus not only informs us but aids and enhances our understanding of one of the most learned and scholarly poets whoever wrote in the English language.

While welcoming the presence of such a critical and informative work, as the Browning Cyclopaedia, one is made more acutely aware of its value by Browning's own observation on his poems : "that my writing has been in the main too hard for many I should have been pleased to communicate with; but I never designedly tried to puzzle people, as some of my critics have supposed. On the other hand, I never pretend to offer such literature as should be a substitute for a cigar or a game at dominoes to an idle man". Surely, Browning's poetry is not for the idle reader. It challenges both the reader's intellect and intelligence. And Edward Berdoe's Cyclopaedia is an intelligent reader's necessary guide to Browning.

Edward Berdoe, was an English physician and author who wrote on the works of Robert Browning and campaigned against medical experiments on human patients and animals.