Aurora leigh now available in the first critically edited and fully annotated edition for almost a century is the foremost example of the mid nineteenth century poem of contemporary lifeit is an amazing verse novel which provides a panoramic view of the early victorian age in london the dominant presence in the work however is the narrator aurora leigh as she develops her ideas on art . This verse novel tells the story of a female writer balancing work and love it is and based on elizabeths own experiences excerpt from aurora leigh a poem in nine books. Aurora leigh blends the genres of poetry and the novel and is at the same time a bildungsroman a novel that traces the development of a young person to maturity or more properly a . Aurora leigh first book of writing many books there is no end and i who have written much in prose and verse for others uses will write now for mine