Robert Browning's pre-eminent status amongst Victorian poets has endured despite the recent broadening of the literary canon. He is the main practitioner of the period's most important poetic genre, the dramatic monologue, while his engagement with many aspects of nineteenth-century culture makes him a key figure in the wider field of Victorian studies. This stimulating introduction to Browning criticism provides an overview of the major responses to the poets work over the last two hundred years. It offers an insightful guide to criticism from various theoretical perspectives, elucidating Brownings participation in Victorian debates about aesthetics, history, politics, religion, gender and psychology.