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Literary HistoryThe Byronic HeroGeorge 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 The International Byron Society Newstead Abbey: The Ancestral Home of Poet Lord Byron A Brief Guide to Romanticism Byronic Images: Portraits of the Poet, His Family, and Friends Log InThe resource you requested requires you to enter a username and password below: | |||