Readers in the Victorian era praised her novels for their depictions of rural society. Much of the material for her prose was drawn from her own experience. She shared with Wordsworth the belief that there was much value and beauty to be found in the mundane details of ordinary country life. Eliot did not, however, confine herself to stories of the English countryside. "Romola", a historical novel set in late fifteenth century Florence, was based on the life of the Italian priest Girolamo Savonarola. In "The Spanish Gypsy", Eliot made a foray into verse, but her poetry's initial popularity has not endured.