Literary History

George Gordon, Lord Byron, was one of the most notorious yet influential English poets of the Romantic period. Byron was only thirty-six when he died, but he left behind a string of works that featured characters based on himself: moody, passionate, and rebellious.

Byron rejected the notion that people of upper-class society should receive privileges based only on their ancestry or rank. Byron’s characters, or “Byronic heroes,” were rebellious, alienated, gloomy, bold, and dangerous outsiders. Through his works such as Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, a poem written from the perspective of a mysterious wanderer who rejects convention, Byron created an archetype of the antihero that still exists in literature and film today.

In addition to creating characters that were outsiders by society’s standards, Byron also helped define the fashions of the Romantic era. His style was exotic and captured in numerous portraits by Byron’s faithful followers. Byron’s poetry influenced many painters of his time, including French artist Eugène Delacroix. He also influenced musicians. Composer Hector Berlioz, a French composer, drew upon many literary works, such as Byron’s Childe Harold, with its quintessential Romantic hero and dreamy mood, for the symphony Harold in Italy. Byron is the topic of the twentieth-century opera, Lord Byron, by American composer Virgil Thomson.

Byron’s fame also rested on his rather extravagant life and colorful personality. One of his lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, said that Byron was “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” His epic poem Don Juan was based on the legend of Don Juan, a name that has become synonymous with “seducer.” While Byron’s poem was considered shocking by early Victorian standards, it stands as perhaps one of the most important English works. Don Juan was incomplete at the time of his death.

Bibliography

Don Juan. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005. Byron’s epic poem based on the legend of Don Juan, a Byronic hero. It was incomplete at the time of Byron’s death.

Byron: Life and Legend. John Murray, 2002. A well-researched, entertaining biography of Lord Byron by English author Fiona MacCarthy.

Lord Byron: Selected Poems. New York: Penguin, 1996. Byron’s classic poetry, including Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Manfred.

The Love Poems of Lord Byron: A Romantic’s Passion. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990. A selection of forty-four poems by Lord Byron that epitomize Romantic poetry.

Web links

George Gordon, Lord Byron
http://engphil.astate.edu/gallery/byron.html
This Web site is devoted to the life, letters, and journals of George Gordon, or Lord Byron. Find out what made him one of the most remarkable English Romantic poets.

The International Byron Society
http://www.internationalbyronsociety.org/
The International Byron Society was founded to bring together and promote communication among those interested in the life and writings of Lord Byron. The site includes eTexts of his works, including Cantos I and II of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Manfred.

Newstead Abbey: The Ancestral Home of Poet Lord Byron
http://www.newsteadabbey.org.uk/
Read about the history and take a virtual tour of Newstead Abbey, the historic home in Nottinghamshire, England, that became the seat of the Byron family in 1540.

A Brief Guide to Romanticism
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5670
A brief guide to the literary movement of the late 1700s, with links to notable authors.

Byronic Images: Portraits of the Poet, His Family, and Friends
http://englishhistory.net/byron/images.html
See the famous portrait of Byron by Richard Westall, as well as several other portraits, sketches, paintings, and engravings of Byron, his lovers, friends, and family members.