Aurora Leigh: Book 8 Summary & Analysis

One evening in Italy, Aurora sits alone with a book while Marian is in the garden below with her child, who is now old enough to stand and talk. As Aurora is lost in thought, she is surprised to hear the voice of Romney himself. Aurora greets him, confused about how she feels, and asks if Lady Waldemar is with him. Romney promises to explain and says he has a letter from Lady Waldemar to Aurora.

Romney references some news Aurora hasn’t heard, but Aurora says she’s already heard it in a letter from Vincent. She thinks he’s talking about Vincent’s marriage to Kate and says she thinks Vincent chose well. Romney isn’t so sure, and Aurora wonders if, with the fickleness of many men before him, after marrying Lady Waldemar, he decided he preferred Kate. Romney asks if Aurora received a letter from Lord Howe about a month ago, but she says she didn’t. Romney says that Sir Blaise, who it turns out didn’t recognize Aurora when she saw him earlier, was supposed to give Aurora Lord Howe’s letter, which would have explained everything about Romney’s current visit.

Romney says that if Aurora has already heard the news about him, he’s surprised she isn’t speaking with more pity. Aurora interprets this as meaning he wants pity for being Lady Waldemar’s husband, so she remains unmoved. When Romney asks about Marian, Aurora says simply that she’s doing well and has no intention of troubling Romney.

Romney then tells Aurora that he’s read her book. Aurora is unimpressed, but Romney goes on about how deeply the book has moved him. He feels that the book is above him, full of knowledge of things he never considered. Romney recalls one morning when he and Aurora were talking about art before he proposed to her and says that now it’s no longer morning but night. Aurora is reluctant to talk about that day, but Romney says that she was right for rejecting him then. He says he comes to her like a child who’s been scolded and punished.

Romney says he used to be too wrapped up in his own dogmatic beliefs. He could hear the cries of all the needy in the world and got distracted trying to answer all of them. He realizes that his judgements of Aurora’s artistic potential were unfair and that his own charity efforts aren’t enough to change the world as he’d once hoped. Aurora says that although Romney may like her book, she feels that, like Romney, she too has failed to accomplish her goals in life, which may have been too ambitious. Still, Aurora maintains that while she has grown wiser and sadder in the time since rejecting Romney’s proposal, she still thinks she made the correct decision.

Romney says that Aurora’s book has helped him better understand that June morning when Aurora rejected him. He says that her poems have long moved him in secret like sap in a tree, but this new book in particular helped unlock something in him. He realizes how he saw himself as trying to be a Christ-like figure saving the world, when in fact he should have been putting more faith in both God and other humans. He says he was arrogant. While Aurora agrees with Romney, she warns him not to make the same mistake by going too far in the other direction and totally giving up on his work. She believes that no honest attempt to carry out God’s work is ever fully a failure.

Romney continues to criticize his past charity work, but Aurora encourages him not to speak so harshly of her cousin, whom she admires. But Romney says his attempts to convert Leigh Hall into a place for the poor were particularly fruitless. He tried to create a place where the poor could take shelter and eat food. But before long, peasants started breaking the windows because they didn’t like the commotion Romney brought to the peaceful area. Rumors spread that Romney was trapping people in Leigh Hall like a prison. One day, people burned the whole house to the ground.

In his dreams, Romney sometimes still experiences the silent stillness after Leigh Hall burned down. He imagines Aurora could have turned the whole experience into a good poem and that perhaps she should visit the charred remains of the hall to get some inspiration. Aurora is moved but still doesn’t want to get too familiar with Romney, believing he’s married to Lady Waldemar.

Romney says he’s said what he intended to say and so it’ll soon be time for him to go. Aurora says she’s sorry for him but wishes him well on his travels. She says that Romney should hurry back to his wife, Lady Waldemar, who was never any friend of Aurora’s, but Aurora has no intention of ruining his happiness. Romney is surprised by this. He says he never married Lady Waldemar and is shocked that Aurora even thinks this, given how well Aurora has understood other aspects of Romney’s life. He holds out a letter from Lady Waldemar herself, which he promises will explain everything.