Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame - Hardcover

Eisler, Benita

4.03

240 ratings by Goodreads

9780241132609: Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241132606 ISBN 13: 9780241132609

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 1999

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Lord Byron was quite simply the most famous Briton of his age - from St James's to the Sublime Porte, from Boston to St Petersburg: stellar poet, scandalous libertine, doomed hero who died 'that Greece might live'. Benita Eisler's magnificent life, drawing on the full range of Byron's papers, astonishingly is the first contemporary biography to address fully the man, his times and poetry.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"Obscured by the freedom fighter, fashion leader, fallen angel and literary bad boy, Byron the great poet has tended to be forgotten," writes Benita Eisler in the closing chapter of her monumental biography, which goes a long way toward depicting George Gordon, Lord Byron in a more balanced fashion. Even in his own era, when the first edition of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage sold out in three days, whispers of incest, homosexuality and--far worse in Tory England--political radicalism--grew so insistent they drove Byron out of his homeland. Eisler's comprehensive narrative does ample justice to the impassioned love affairs that made him notorious, from his voluptuous half-sister, Augusta Leigh, to the erratic and vengeful Lady Caroline Lamb, who famously described him as "mad, bad and dangerous to know." Let's face it, those juicy stories are half the reason we want to read about Byron but Eisler gives us the other half too, reminding her readers with lengthy quotes and intelligent exegesis that Don Juan is one of the greatest poems in English and Byron one of the most influential and important poets. Her impeccably researched text is lucid about Byron's beliefs, candid about his faults and persuasively ardent about his genius. --Wendy Smith, Amazon.com

Synopsis:

Drawing upon family papers only recently available, this biography offers a full portrait of the women and men Byron loved, a detailed picture of his marriage, a new examination of his political ambitions and his hunger for a hero's place in history and addresses fully the man, his times and poetry.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.