Byron In Love [Paperback]

"Byron in Love" by Edna O'Brien is neither good biography nor good fiction. It is a patchwork of speculation and hyperbole cumulating in a waste of good printing paper. The first quarter of the book is a poor rehash of the history of Byron's ancestors, time spent at school and his first trip abroad. Since the author did not include citations, the reader is unable to differentiate fact from speculation. It should not be read by anyone unacquainted with the Poet and is useless to anyone knowledgeable about him. So who should read "Byron in Love?' Answer: no-one. This reviewer has one final comment: If anyone thought that Trelawny vilified Byron --- that was a mere bagatelle compared to O'Brien's opinion of the Poet.

Byron is a difficult choice for a subject of a biography. Nowadays few people read poetry and even fewer can quote much Byron. Earlier biographers felt the need to analyse his work as well as his life.If you are reading for an English Lit. degree then the more staid biographies will be better suited. But if you want an immensely readable, beautifully crafted study of the poets life and an insight into his friends both male and female (he was bisexual after all) then Edna O'Brien's book cannot be bettered. Practically all that is known of the man comes from letters, diaries and scurrilous gossip from friends and aquaintances nearly all of whom (both men a women) had their own axes to grind in some way or other.

Instead of ending up with an academic study which few people would choose to read the author has given us a well researched overveiw of Byrons remarkable and at times hardly believable relations with both sexes within an accurate background portrayal of the period.There are minor criticisms such as the scant attention given to the meeting with Byron and the Shellys on the momentous night when Frankenstein was concieved.

But this is nit picking. Quite simply if you want the best and most enjoyable biography of Byrons sexual personna ..this is it.

If you read no other book on Byron..read this one and enjoy

"Byron in Love: A Short Daring Life," gives us a short, daring treatment of the life of George Gordon, Lord Byron, noted romantic poet of the British Regency period. Byron, whom many consider to be the first modern celebrity, a rock star in his own time, composed the longer works "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," and "Don Juan," as well as the famed shorter works "She Walks in Beauty," "When We Two Parted," and "So, We'll Go No More A Roving." He lived most of his life (1788-1824) within what's considered the Regency period in Great Britain; (the time when George IV ascended the throne, although his father, George III was still alive, though mentally incapacitated; the situation required a regency.) This period is most strictly dated from 1811-1820; but is more generally considered to run from 1795-1837, between the English Georgian and Victorian ages. Jane Austen is generally considered the landmark British author of the age; but, despite Austen's pleasantly civilized domestic novels, it was a period of great licentious excess, particularly among the nobility, who were light years removed from, and astronomically richer than, their more ordinary compatriots. And Byron was the most licentious of them all: one of his many mistresses, the well-known Lady Caroline Lamb, notably characterized him as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." And, of course, as these things go, as the yin always calls forth the yang, this era was followed by the prudish and hypocritical Victorian period.

Edna O'Brien, noted Irish author (Country Girl), is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has earned great popularity for her work; also many awards, including the James Joyce Ulysses Medal, a Kingsley Amis Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (for LANTERN SLIDES, 1990.) I cannot think of another author better suited, by coolness of wit and comprehension of unusual behavior, to bring back to life the poet's extraordinarily excessive existence. Byron was a nasty son, a never-satisfied lover of both sexes, a wounding husband and father, a wanton spendthrift, a loyal friend, and a reckless, generally foolish adventurer. However, if I may just interject here; this may be a somewhat novelistic treatment of the poet's life, but Byron, his family, friends and lovers were real people, of the upper castes, and portraits exist of most of them. I wish they'd been given to us here, so we could better visualize these people.

Byron was an extraordinarily handsome and charismatic man, although he was born with a club foot and was lame all his life. He was the son of the heavy-set, frequently depressed Scottish noblewoman and heiress Catherine Gordon, second wife of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron; and between the two of them, the pair spent every penny she had. The boy poet was sent to Harrow and Cambridge, two outstanding, prestigious, ancient schools, where the nobility were frequently sent. But Byron found flirtation more satisfying than study. At the age of ten, the poet-to-be inherited land and title from an uncle, becoming "Lord Byron." And it was off to the races with him. In 1812, he had a highly publicized affair with the married Lady Caroline Lamb, scandalizing the English public. He was to marry Lady Caroline's cousin, Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke, also an heiress of the nobility, in 1815. Annabella had a miserable year with the man, as he much preferred his married half-sister Lady Augusta Leigh: both women delivered girls he presumably fathered at about the same time. Annabella soon legally separated from the poet, charging him with sodomy and incest; charges so serious English public opinion strongly turned against him, never to turn again to his favor during his life. So he went abroad. He became close friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley, another famed romantic poet in self-imposed exile, and Shelley's wife, Mary Godwin Shelley, who was to write the world-famous book FRANKENSTEIN. Byron fathered yet another daughter on Claire Clairmont, Mary's stepsister, and once again refused any support to mother or daughter. One of his last, best-known affairs was with the Italian Countess Teresa Guiccioli, who was to write a memoir about him. He died of a fever in Mesolonghi, Greece, at the age of 36, as he was trying to assist in that country's efforts to free itself from the Turkish Empire.

Frankly, I am no big fan of Byron, and never have been; nor am I a fan of Shelley. In fact, I have never been much of a fan of the romantic poets. I began my college career as an English major, signed up for the required course on the romantic poets, bought the required books, said to myself, what am I doing here? I don't like these guys, and became a history major. So I must say, to me O'Brien's book makes brilliantly clear and vivid the utter looniness of Byron's life; and, also, the seeming utter looniness of his friends, family: anybody who had anything to do with him. Her book, in fact, leaves me wondering if the entire continent was off its rocker at the time. But O'Brien, while laying it all-- perhaps imagined, perhaps historically correct-- out for the reader remains remarkably non-judgmental throughout; she will allow the reader to reach his or her own conclusions.