Aurora Leigh: Book 3 Summary & Analysis

Aurora has achieved mild success as a writer in London, receiving letters from people who praise her writing and also give sometimes-contradictory criticism. Aurora also receives a letter from Vincent Carrington, a friend of Romney who writes about how Romney continues to be obsessed with social causes and trying to remake the world into a better place, while Carrington himself is content just to paint.

Aurora rents a chamber up three flights of stairs in the Kensington area of London. She enjoys being able to work in solitude. Of her writing work, she says she has done “some excellent things indifferently,some bad things excellently,” with both receiving praise but particularly the latter. Romney never writes to Aurora, and she feels that his silence must be a sign of disdain.

Aurora continues working, sometimes getting frustrated and tearing her poems up. People tell her she looks ill from working too much. Slowly, Aurora makes her way into London’s literary world and learns its customs, writing less serious articles and stories to make an income to support her real passion of serious poetry.

One day, a woman with a very aristocratic voice called Lady Waldemar comes to visit Aurora. Aurora admits she is surprised to see the woman, since she wasn’t expecting any visitors. Lady Waldemar assures Aurora she means no harm. She asks if Aurora is indeed the cousin of Romney. Aurora confirms this, then Lady Waldemar asks if Aurora loves him. Aurora says she only loves him as a cousin.

Lady Waldemar says she’ll speak directly: She herself is in love with Romney. Aurora tries to warn her that she’s “no friend” for Lady Waldemar to make confessions to, but Lady Waldemar says she’s willing to make a new friend. She explains that her first husband left her with a fair amount of money, and since she’s still young, many people would like to marry her. She believes she’d be a fitting match for Romney. She says she knows that love is irrational and that perhaps she could find someone richer, but Romney is the one she wants. Aurora reassures her that she too believes in the power of love and that Lady Waldemar has no need to explain or apologize.

Lady Waldemar asks for Aurora’s help with her cousin Romney, but Aurora says it’s up to Romney to make his own choice about a wife. Lady Waldemar tells Aurora that in fact, he has already done so and intends to marry a woman who is socially beneath him in just a week, which Aurora is surprised to learn. Lady Waldemar herself has tried everything she can to win over Romney herself, even getting involved with his social causes and signing petitions. Although he spoke appreciatively to Lady Waldemar, he went no further.

Lady Waldemar goes on to tell Aurora how she teased Romney about his upcoming marriage one day. Waldemar told Romney she thought it was admirable for him to throw away his good family name for someone below him and that it was better for him to boast about the marriage instead of trying to hide it, because otherwise people might think there was something disreputable going on. This clearly rattled Romney, who asked Lady Waldemar if she knew Aurora. Lady Waldemar lied and said yes. She said she would go find Aurora, and the two of them would go together to see Marian Erle, the woman Romney’s engaged to, in order to help end any gossip around the upcoming marriage.

Lady Waldemar’s scheme got Romney to delay his marriage to Marian Erle by a month. In the present, after hearing all this, Aurora agrees to go see if Marian is worthy of Romney, but she warns Waldemar that Waldemar might get no benefit from this trip. Lady Waldemar replies that her only goal was to stall Romney’s marriage and to have an occasion to meet Aurora, whom she can tell is influential with Romney.

Aurora tells Lady Waldemar that she doesn’t think Lady Waldemar’s love for Romney is strong enough and that she should just go to the opera or something to try to cure it. Lady Waldemar says Aurora is harsh and that Waldemar would make a great wife for Romney to love. Aurora thinks Romney doesn’t want anyone to love, just a woman to use to help him, like a horse. Lady Waldemar gives up and takes her leave of Aurora.

Unsure how to feel, Aurora goes on her own to the building where Marian Erle lives. There’s a sick child out front, and Marian lives several floors up. Marian expects Romney and is surprised to see Aurora. Aurora assesses Marian, noting to herself that Marian is not particularly beautiful and looks childish.  Marian tells her life story.

Marian grew up in an illegally constructed house in a slum. Her father worked various odd jobs, eventually becoming a drover (livestock herder). He got drunk and yelled at his wife for not having more money for alcohol, and Marian’s mother in turn treated Marian harshly, beating her. Marian learned how to cry quietly. Marian would creep out on her own to look at the open sky, which helped her to learn about God. At Sunday school, Marian befriended a girl named Rose, who, to Marian’s amazement, laughed freely without being scolded or beaten by her mother. Marian later found out that this was because Rose’s mother died six years ago, when Rose was just one year old.

Learning more at Sunday school only made it more difficult for Marian to live in her abusive home, where doing the right thing often led to punishment. Marian grew up without any book learning or knowledge of authors. She struggled at jobs, both outdoors and indoors work. One day, her mother tried to sell her into sex work by giving her to a squire, but she resisted and ran away until she couldn’t anymore. Someone found her passed out in a ditch and took her to the hospital, where she had a bad fever for a while but eventually recovered due to her youthful energy. It was right before she was about to leave the hospital that Romney Leigh came one day. Seeing Marian, he took pity on her and asked about her situation. She said both her parents were “lost” to her, with her father drunk and her mother trying to lead her into evil.

Marian was entranced by Romney’s tender way of speaking. He wanted to help her live a better life and helped encourage her growing interest in God. Eventually, he helped her to get a job sewing, where she worked vigorously as a way to try to show her worth to him.