Fifine at the Fair

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 533 words | Copyright

Fifine at the Fair, a poem in alexandrine couplets by R. Browning, published 1872.

The speaker is Don Juan, who is strolling with his wife Elvire near Pornic in Britanny, where a fair is being held. Don Juan, attracted by the gipsy dancer Fifine, dissertates to Elvire on the nature of his feelings, contrasting the intense ephemerality of desire with the dull permanence of love, this initial theme then giving rise to a series of brilliant variations on the interconnected topics of knowledge, identity, and truth in life and art.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Fifine at the Fair." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Fifine at the Fair." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-FifineattheFair.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Fifine at the Fair." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-FifineattheFair.html

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