This is a biographical account of the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a personal and yet domestic telling of her life in Devon. It describes the highs and lows - certainly losing her brother on a boating trip out of Torquay Harbour affected her writing intensely.
Her defiance against her father's controlling ways, the declaration that she was going to dress like a man and become a heavy smoker just to shock him gives a more intimate picture of a strong woman, often seen as the model Victorian.