‘His poetry squarely faces the evil and the inexplicable in existence; the optimism and faith which are his answers to them remain unimpaired because they are based not on assertive self-confidence but ultimately on humility.’ John Bryson, in his perceptive study, writes thus of Browning, and his sympathetic analysis will send many readers to the poems of one of the most eminent of all Victorians. John Bryson, who died in 1976, was a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, with which foundation Browning has close associations; he edited the Everyman’s Library selection from Browning’s work.