Ring and the Book

The Ring and the Book is Robert Browning's great verse novel, inspired by the records of a seventeenth-century Roman murder case. A young wife, a violent husband, a mysterious priest, and a sensational trial become the center of a story told through many different voices. Each speaker offers a different version of the same events, revealing new motives, prejudices, and hidden truths. First published in 1868-1869, this ambitious work combines crime, courtroom drama, psychology, and poetry in a remarkable study of truth, justice, and human nature.