Elizabeth Barrett began writing at an early age, and remained a prolific author throughout her life in spite of her poor health. She was an invalid approaching forty when she met fellow poet and her future husband Robert Browning. The story of their secret courtship and elopement is one of the most famous romances in literary history. In addition to the popular love sonnets and a verse novel Aurora Leigh (1856), Elizabeth Barrett Browning also wrote poems addressing political and social issues. She died in Florence, Italy, at the age of fifty-five.