Byron's Letters and Journals

Byron's Letters and Journals #3

by Lord Byron, Leslie A. Marchand

Byron was a superb letter-writer: almost all his letters, whatever the subject or whoever the recipient, are enlivened by his wit, his irony, his honesty, and the sharpness of his observation of people. They provide a vivid self-portrait of the man who, of all his contemporaries, seems to express attitudes and feelings most in tune with the twentieth century. In addition, they offer a mirror of his own time. This first collected edition of all Byron's known letters supersedes Prothero's incomplete edition at the turn of the century. It includes a considerable number of hitherto unpublished letters and the complete text of many that were bowdlerized by former editors for a variety of reasons. Prothero's edition included 1,198 letters. This edition has more than 3,000, over 80 percent of them transcribed entirely from the original manuscripts.

The third volume starts with Byron at the first crest of his fame following the publication of Childe Harold. It includes his literary letters to Tom Moore, frank and intimate ones to Hobhouse, pungent ones to Hanson and Murray, and his lively and amusing missives to Lady Melbourne, his confidante through all his love affairs.

To her he describes the backwash of his tempestuous affair with Caroline Lamb, his emotional crises with Lady Oxford, the beginning of his liaison with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and his flirtation with Lady Frances Webster. The volume contains the letters of 1813 and the journal of 1813-14, the first of his five incomparable journals.

The letters display, as Martin Fagg puts it, a "bewitching amalgam of the picturesque and the earthy, of arrogance and modesty, of vituperation and tenderness, of soulfulness and sheer irresistible high spirits." They confirm Max Beerbohm's opinion, "Byron's letters are, I think, the best ever written--the fullest and most spontaneous."

Genres: Nonfiction, Romanticism, Biography, Poetry

285 pages, Hardcover

First published May 28, 2001

About the author

George Gordon Byron (invariably known as Lord Byron), later Noel, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale FRS was a British poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. Amongst Byron's best-known works are the brief poems She Walks in Beauty, When We Two Parted, and So, we'll go no more a roving, in addition to the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential, both in the English-speaking world and beyond.

Byron's notabilty rests not only on his writings but also on his life, which featured upper-class living, numerous love affairs, debts, and separation. He was notably described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". Byron served as a regional leader of Italy's revolutionary organization, the Carbonari, in its struggle against Austria. He later travelled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died from a fever contracted while in Messolonghi in Greece.

Reviews

[Nick Imrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the age of 26 Byron had published Childe Harold, The Giaour, and Bride of Abydos, and yet in his letters he complains of being a middle-aged man (at 26!) who has accomplished nothing of worth in his life! Indeed, if anything he seems to be ashamed of his writing. He refers to it as 'scribbling' (and of course, being Byron, has to mention that although he has no respect for a scribbling man, he has even less for a woman who publishes).

Struggling with his weight, longing to leave the country but hampered by legal matters at home, plagues abroad, and money, always money. The past seems such a lonely place when seen through the eyes of Byron. Either in town, but pretending not to be in order to avoid being invited to parties which he does not really wish to attend, or in the country lonely and missing his few friends.

It's strange. He is such a lively witty fellow, and everything he writes is entertaining, bitchy and funny. And yet for all that his letters and journals are so melancholy. Poor Byron, I wish he had been able to be happy.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Byron's letters are hilarious. This is generally pretty obvious, but reading several volumes of these letters, even from a really difficult period in Byron's life - my god. The letter where he talks about the "league of incest" he's accused of creating with Shelley is hysterical. And in his letters to Lady Melbourne, Byron creates this campy, totally over the top persona - like your gay best friend, only he's sleeping with every woman in sight (including his sister). And I hate to laugh at Caroline Lamb's expense, but when Byron's writing about her in his letters... well, let the hilarity ensue.

Examples:

From November 11, 1818, to John Cam Hobhouse, on the "bitter" dedication of Don Juan to Robert Southey:
"The Son of a Bitch [Bob Southey] on his return from Switzerland two years ago--said that Shelley and I "had formed a League of Incest and practiced our precepts with &c."--he lied like a rascal--for they were not Sisters--one being Godwin's daughter by Mary Wollstonecraft--and the other the daughter of the present Mrs. G[odwin] by a former husband."

From October 28, 1816, to Augusta Leigh, regarding Annabella Milbanke (his now ex-wife):
"Miss Milbanke appears in all respects to have been formed for my destruction..."

And so on.

On a more professional note, Leslie Marchand has done an incredible job collecting, referencing, and publishing these letters. This eleven-volume set is an resource beyond all value.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most beautiful and most horny letters of all time.