What do you think?
Rate this book
Lady Byron and Her Daughters
The center of public attention after her tumultuous marriage to Lord Byron, Annabella Milbanke transformed herself from a neglected wife into a figure of incredible resilience and social vision. After she and her infant child were cast out of their home, she was left to navigate the stifling and unsupportive social environment of Regency England. Far from a victim or an obstacle to Byron’s work, however, Lady Byron was a rebel against the fashionable snobbery of her class, founding the first Infants School and Co-Operative School in England. A poet and talented mathematician, Lady Byron supported the education of her precocious daughter, Ada Lovelace, now recognized and lauded as a pioneer of computer science, and saved from death her “adoptive daughter” Medora Leigh, the child of Lord Byron’s incest with his sister. Lady Byron was adored by the younger abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe and by many notable friends. Yet her complex relationships with her family, including the sister Byron loved, runs like a live wire through this skillfully told and groundbreaking biography of a remarkable woman who made a life for herself and became a leading light in her century.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2015
12 people are currently reading
543 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
August 30, 2017
There is a lot to like about this book but you will find yourself flipping back to see what you missed (only to find that it wasn’t there) and being jarred by sentences that don’t exactly hang together. The ending has some overly long (i.e. the death of Ada) parts.
In the first part of this book you meet a young naive “belle of the ball” who has wealth, doting parents and suitors. She falls in love with the dreamer poet, the rock star of his day. There are glimmers of his instability which come out full steam just after the marriage vows. Author Julia Markus takes you through this stormy marriage, the terrible legal situation of Lady Byron (after a year’s marriage to this totally abusive man, her family cedes him access to half their estates on the iffy prospect of keeping their grandchild, to whom this abuser has legal claims) and the how she held her head up through her husband’s vile portraits in his famous works.
In the early 1800's there was limited to no understanding of abuse, incest and mental illness. It is painful to imagine a sheltered innocent like Annabelle Milbanke unexpectedly walking into it. You have to marvel at her courage and tact.
Rid of Byron Annabelle leads a quiet life as Byron libels her in his poems and his personal life. Following the deaths of her parents she came into great wealth. She founded schools (one attended years later by Peter Townsend, Ronnie Wood and Freddie Mercury), supported working people, and fought against slavery. She raised the daughter of this disastrous marriage and later adopted and raised a child of Byron and his half sister. She told her story to Harriet Beecher Stowe. (http://www.amazon.com/Byron-Vindicate...)
While the author has done some excellent research, the book needs an editor. The significant issue of how and when Annabelle learned of Byron’s relationship with his sister is a muddle throughout the first third of the book (resolved on p. 103). Smaller episodes, such as the few paragraphs in which daughter Ada is made the Countess of Lovelace are told with no context. The preceding paragraphs have her mother unable to schedule an appointment with Queen Victoria.
There are sentences that don’t connect such as on p. 174 “The place was locked down, a fortress, though Colonel Leigh visited her 3 times, her mother once and an aunt, but she didn’t recall which one, sent the religious materials.” Thoughts can dangle, for instance on p. 189 the sentence “Lady Byron was.” leaves you wondering: was what? Preceding sentences suggest she was thinking about Medora’s fatherhood but that should be a given by this time. Another example is on p. 192 where it is unclear how Ada’s husband, “seemed replaced”… by Ada’s letter from her mother? by Ada’s interest in electricity? He had been marginalized ("replaced by John Crosse) long before this.
There are some characters whom I’d have liked to know more about. Colonel Leigh (and how he came to know and marry Augusta) and John Crosse (and what Ada saw in him).
This is an important story and needs a better book. It illustrates not only the sad position of women at the time, it shows how celebrity excuses abusive/amoral behavior. Lord Byron with his “daring” (mental illness/psychopathy) captured the imagination of academics and aesthetes for generations by his poetry and his "Byronic" life. He crafted a public image of someone he was not. Harriet Beecher Stowe was criticized and dismissed for daring to write what his admirers did not want to hear. As long as his wife, sister, children and others close to him could be silenced, he could have his fortune and fame, fame which continues today.
In the first part of this book you meet a young naive “belle of the ball” who has wealth, doting parents and suitors. She falls in love with the dreamer poet, the rock star of his day. There are glimmers of his instability which come out full steam just after the marriage vows. Author Julia Markus takes you through this stormy marriage, the terrible legal situation of Lady Byron (after a year’s marriage to this totally abusive man, her family cedes him access to half their estates on the iffy prospect of keeping their grandchild, to whom this abuser has legal claims) and the how she held her head up through her husband’s vile portraits in his famous works.
In the early 1800's there was limited to no understanding of abuse, incest and mental illness. It is painful to imagine a sheltered innocent like Annabelle Milbanke unexpectedly walking into it. You have to marvel at her courage and tact.
Rid of Byron Annabelle leads a quiet life as Byron libels her in his poems and his personal life. Following the deaths of her parents she came into great wealth. She founded schools (one attended years later by Peter Townsend, Ronnie Wood and Freddie Mercury), supported working people, and fought against slavery. She raised the daughter of this disastrous marriage and later adopted and raised a child of Byron and his half sister. She told her story to Harriet Beecher Stowe. (http://www.amazon.com/Byron-Vindicate...)
While the author has done some excellent research, the book needs an editor. The significant issue of how and when Annabelle learned of Byron’s relationship with his sister is a muddle throughout the first third of the book (resolved on p. 103). Smaller episodes, such as the few paragraphs in which daughter Ada is made the Countess of Lovelace are told with no context. The preceding paragraphs have her mother unable to schedule an appointment with Queen Victoria.
There are sentences that don’t connect such as on p. 174 “The place was locked down, a fortress, though Colonel Leigh visited her 3 times, her mother once and an aunt, but she didn’t recall which one, sent the religious materials.” Thoughts can dangle, for instance on p. 189 the sentence “Lady Byron was.” leaves you wondering: was what? Preceding sentences suggest she was thinking about Medora’s fatherhood but that should be a given by this time. Another example is on p. 192 where it is unclear how Ada’s husband, “seemed replaced”… by Ada’s letter from her mother? by Ada’s interest in electricity? He had been marginalized ("replaced by John Crosse) long before this.
There are some characters whom I’d have liked to know more about. Colonel Leigh (and how he came to know and marry Augusta) and John Crosse (and what Ada saw in him).
This is an important story and needs a better book. It illustrates not only the sad position of women at the time, it shows how celebrity excuses abusive/amoral behavior. Lord Byron with his “daring” (mental illness/psychopathy) captured the imagination of academics and aesthetes for generations by his poetry and his "Byronic" life. He crafted a public image of someone he was not. Harriet Beecher Stowe was criticized and dismissed for daring to write what his admirers did not want to hear. As long as his wife, sister, children and others close to him could be silenced, he could have his fortune and fame, fame which continues today.
October 10, 2015
Wife and daughters of “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”
Annabella Milbanke was still a very young women when she met Lord Byron, but she wasn’t going to throw herself at him the way many others in her set did. Independent, highly intelligent, and well educated, she actually felt a little sorry for the poet. After hearing him complain once about loneliness, she wrote him a letter offering to be his friend, but no more. That started their courtship, but it took several years for Byron to convince her to marry him. Reading about their romance in this fascinating, eye-opening, multi-generational biography, I wanted to leap through the pages, grab her by the shoulders, and shout, “No! Don’t do it!” But even after everything that happened in the short time they managed to live together as husband and wife, and all the ways her eyes were eventually opened to the kind of man Bryon really was, it sounds like she didn’t regret her decision to wed the original Byronic “hero”.
My previous encounters with Lord Byron usually left me with a feeling of good-natured indulgence toward him, “Oh, that crazy poet!” But while reading about him in this book I experienced a rising sense of horror--was he rabidly abusive because he was insane, as other members of his family were rumored to have been, was he “just” a cruel, self-indulgent beast of a man warped by a difficult childhood? Regency era morality may have been part of the problem, but his actions went well beyond even those norms.
Byron berated and threatened Annabella from the first days of their marriage. She had no idea then why his behavior toward her changed so quickly, and she didn’t know that part of the reason Byron wanted to marry her was to cover up the incestuous relationship he had with his sister, Augusta Leigh. He also had affairs with many other married women including Annabella’s aunt, Lady Melbourne, and her sister-in-law, Caroline Lamb. After learning all this Annabella still hoped to “save” him, but following the birth of their daughter he threw her out, never saw his daughter Ada again, happily used Annabella's family money to fund his expensive eccentric lifestyle and adventures on the Continent--including outfitting a Greek band of freedom fighters--and then died overseas with Annabella’s name on his lips, unable to complete whatever last message he had for her, leaving her once again distraught.
Unknown and surprising to me, Annabella has been castigated and considered a villain by many of Byron’s biographers, a viewpoint Julia Markus counters forcefully in this book. According to her research many of their facts were wrong, and the “genius excuses cruelty” defense of Byron is a foul argument in any case.
After her separation from Byron, Annabella became a politically liberal philanthropist, funding and setting up schools, assisting and advocating for the poor, and opposing slavery. The “daughters” in the title refers to both Ada, the brilliant child of Annabella and Byron, but also to Medora, Byron’s daughter by his sister. Medora was a troubled young lady and Annabella unofficially adopted her after she was essentially abandoned by her own mother. Ada became famous because of her computer science insights, long before there were any computers to be had, and she can probably thank her mother for those abilities because Annabella was also drawn to and gifted in mathematics--early in their relationship Byron called Annabella “my Princess of Parallelograms”.
In addition to Annabella, her two daughters and her three grandchildren, this multi-person biography also has interesting side trips into into the lives of a number of other notable people of the nineteenth century, including Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Annabella’s first biography.
I was initially put off by the writing style of this book--it felt choppy and sometimes awkward to me--a fact I mention only because that sense didn’t last much longer than the first chapter. If other readers feel the same way and consider putting the book down after a few pages I would advise sticking with it in case their experience continues to mirror mine. I soon became enthralled, so either the writing style changed, or I adjusted to its flow, or there wasn’t much problem with it to begin with.
I read an ebook advanced review copy of this book supplied to me at no cost by the publisher through Edelweiss. Review opinions are mine.
Annabella Milbanke was still a very young women when she met Lord Byron, but she wasn’t going to throw herself at him the way many others in her set did. Independent, highly intelligent, and well educated, she actually felt a little sorry for the poet. After hearing him complain once about loneliness, she wrote him a letter offering to be his friend, but no more. That started their courtship, but it took several years for Byron to convince her to marry him. Reading about their romance in this fascinating, eye-opening, multi-generational biography, I wanted to leap through the pages, grab her by the shoulders, and shout, “No! Don’t do it!” But even after everything that happened in the short time they managed to live together as husband and wife, and all the ways her eyes were eventually opened to the kind of man Bryon really was, it sounds like she didn’t regret her decision to wed the original Byronic “hero”.
My previous encounters with Lord Byron usually left me with a feeling of good-natured indulgence toward him, “Oh, that crazy poet!” But while reading about him in this book I experienced a rising sense of horror--was he rabidly abusive because he was insane, as other members of his family were rumored to have been, was he “just” a cruel, self-indulgent beast of a man warped by a difficult childhood? Regency era morality may have been part of the problem, but his actions went well beyond even those norms.
Byron berated and threatened Annabella from the first days of their marriage. She had no idea then why his behavior toward her changed so quickly, and she didn’t know that part of the reason Byron wanted to marry her was to cover up the incestuous relationship he had with his sister, Augusta Leigh. He also had affairs with many other married women including Annabella’s aunt, Lady Melbourne, and her sister-in-law, Caroline Lamb. After learning all this Annabella still hoped to “save” him, but following the birth of their daughter he threw her out, never saw his daughter Ada again, happily used Annabella's family money to fund his expensive eccentric lifestyle and adventures on the Continent--including outfitting a Greek band of freedom fighters--and then died overseas with Annabella’s name on his lips, unable to complete whatever last message he had for her, leaving her once again distraught.
Unknown and surprising to me, Annabella has been castigated and considered a villain by many of Byron’s biographers, a viewpoint Julia Markus counters forcefully in this book. According to her research many of their facts were wrong, and the “genius excuses cruelty” defense of Byron is a foul argument in any case.
After her separation from Byron, Annabella became a politically liberal philanthropist, funding and setting up schools, assisting and advocating for the poor, and opposing slavery. The “daughters” in the title refers to both Ada, the brilliant child of Annabella and Byron, but also to Medora, Byron’s daughter by his sister. Medora was a troubled young lady and Annabella unofficially adopted her after she was essentially abandoned by her own mother. Ada became famous because of her computer science insights, long before there were any computers to be had, and she can probably thank her mother for those abilities because Annabella was also drawn to and gifted in mathematics--early in their relationship Byron called Annabella “my Princess of Parallelograms”.
In addition to Annabella, her two daughters and her three grandchildren, this multi-person biography also has interesting side trips into into the lives of a number of other notable people of the nineteenth century, including Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Annabella’s first biography.
I was initially put off by the writing style of this book--it felt choppy and sometimes awkward to me--a fact I mention only because that sense didn’t last much longer than the first chapter. If other readers feel the same way and consider putting the book down after a few pages I would advise sticking with it in case their experience continues to mirror mine. I soon became enthralled, so either the writing style changed, or I adjusted to its flow, or there wasn’t much problem with it to begin with.
I read an ebook advanced review copy of this book supplied to me at no cost by the publisher through Edelweiss. Review opinions are mine.
March 25, 2019
This book started out well, with a gripping account of the decline of the Byron marriage, but I soon got bogged down by the author's cloying style, which might work wonderfully for a novel but becomes irritating in a biography. Too often I found myself wondering, "Would it be so dreadful to write a simple declarative sentence once in a while?"
Markus also tends to digress, particularly in the middle of the book, where there's a detour into the ethnic origins of Robert Browning that can be explained only by the fact that the author has written about the Brownings in the past and couldn't resist a reprise.
My main quarrel with this book, though, is that I didn't come away with much more knowledge than I had before I read it. Although the title suggests that Lady Byron will share equal billing with her daughter, Ada Lovelace, and her quasi-adopted daughter, Medora Leigh, this turns out not to be the case. Markus's main interest is Lord Byron's alleged incest with his half-sister, Augusta, and its effect on Lady Byron, and everything else gets subsumed by this topic. Ada is the chief loser here--once she is married off, Markus loses interest in her until near the end of the book, when she chronicles Ada's decline and death in minute detail. At various points, she suggests that Ada was addicted to laudanum and states that she had lost affection for her husband, but having piqued the reader's interest, she then moves on without elaborating. As the product of the alleged incest, Medora naturally gets considerable attention from the author, but even with her, the author seems disinclined to look much beyond the surface.
Three stars because the book appears to be well researched and because Lady Byron does appear to be in need of a champion.
Markus also tends to digress, particularly in the middle of the book, where there's a detour into the ethnic origins of Robert Browning that can be explained only by the fact that the author has written about the Brownings in the past and couldn't resist a reprise.
My main quarrel with this book, though, is that I didn't come away with much more knowledge than I had before I read it. Although the title suggests that Lady Byron will share equal billing with her daughter, Ada Lovelace, and her quasi-adopted daughter, Medora Leigh, this turns out not to be the case. Markus's main interest is Lord Byron's alleged incest with his half-sister, Augusta, and its effect on Lady Byron, and everything else gets subsumed by this topic. Ada is the chief loser here--once she is married off, Markus loses interest in her until near the end of the book, when she chronicles Ada's decline and death in minute detail. At various points, she suggests that Ada was addicted to laudanum and states that she had lost affection for her husband, but having piqued the reader's interest, she then moves on without elaborating. As the product of the alleged incest, Medora naturally gets considerable attention from the author, but even with her, the author seems disinclined to look much beyond the surface.
Three stars because the book appears to be well researched and because Lady Byron does appear to be in need of a champion.
December 26, 2015
I gave this two stars not because the subject matter wasn't interesting--far from it. The personalities and relationships in the family of the poet Byron, and the ways in which these women coped with frustratingly limited roles at that time period, were fascinating. In the person of Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of the poet, we have a bona fide genius, who helped lay the mathematical groundwork for modern computers. Lady Byron's activist and charitable work for the poor, including helping antislavery writer Harriet Beecher Stowe resettle American slaves in England, was another area of interest, as was Lady Byron's grandson's friendship with novelist Henry James. James based the plot of one of his best known novels on his friend's life.
The reason for my low rating is that the writing was poorly done. I lost count of the numerous errors in the text, and doubted whether the editor mentioned in the acknowledgments ever actually took a look at the manuscript. Some mistakes were embarrassingly basic, e.g. the "bells peeled", "financial straights", to "council" instead of "counsel" someone, Byron misspelled as Bryon, and many others. A number of sentences were incomplete or failed to make sense. Modern day expressions or examples were incongruously thrown in from time to time, such as comparing two of the 19th century women to Camilla and Diana (though even here, "Diana" was misspelled). Ugh! In the hands of a skilled writer, this could easily have been a five-star book.
The reason for my low rating is that the writing was poorly done. I lost count of the numerous errors in the text, and doubted whether the editor mentioned in the acknowledgments ever actually took a look at the manuscript. Some mistakes were embarrassingly basic, e.g. the "bells peeled", "financial straights", to "council" instead of "counsel" someone, Byron misspelled as Bryon, and many others. A number of sentences were incomplete or failed to make sense. Modern day expressions or examples were incongruously thrown in from time to time, such as comparing two of the 19th century women to Camilla and Diana (though even here, "Diana" was misspelled). Ugh! In the hands of a skilled writer, this could easily have been a five-star book.
January 22, 2016
Five star subject matter, two star scholarship.
April 24, 2018
Well, this is certainly a polarizing topic and I am quite stunned at how many women, some who claim to be feminists, are so antagonistic towards Lady Byron for "not reading the signs and choosing poorly" in marrying Byron. I get ever so tired of people imposing current social mores on people of a wholly different time and culture.
This book is not well written but I am glad I read it and the four stars come from the connection I made with Lady Byron as I see in her some of my own shortcomings and that is always a growing experience. That being said, I would only recommend this one if you really want to see both sides of the Byron debacle and you have a strong constitution because the book can be difficult to follow and the incredibly terrible things that some of these people did to each other, especially to their children, can make you have nightmares at night. (I am not kidding, I actually experienced a nightmare after reading this one evening before bed.) I am grateful for a contemporary apologist for Lady Byron. Dear Harriet Beecher Stowe made a valiant effort at bring Lady Byron into a positive light but she was a bit overwrought in her approach and in some ways she did more harm than good.
I am actually really pleased with Lady Byron's choice not to remarry and to carry on doing good on her own and I do not see her simply as a woman who continued to pine away for Lord Byron. I think she did marvelous things and I find it so frustrating that she continues to be at best forgotten and at worst vilified for her choices. She was by no means perfect, but I think she did the best she could with what she had and the culture she was living in and I am grateful for the difference she has made by giving us the works of George MacDonald, strengthening the abolitionist movement in America, creating a school and school programs that were decades ahead of their time, and many other contributions. You go, girl!
I have a number of quotes that I need to remember...
"Reader, prepare for a train wreck." (Seriously, this cracked me up, but I should have heeded the warning!)
"So it was on the night of January 14 Annabella came to Byron's quarters to say goodbye. Augusta was in the room with him. In a mocking tone Byron asked his wife, 'When shall we three meet again?' They had journeyed past the underlying eroticism of The Taming the Shrew to the opening lines of Macbeth. The curtain rises on a miserable night. The first witch asks the others round the cauldron: 'When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?'
'In heaven, I hope,' Annabella answered without missing a beat. She turned and left."
"Although she returned from Scotland 'appalled at the desert, which seemed to spread before me,' she brought back with her the educational concept of 'cheerfulness' which she could not feel, but which she spread among needy children."
"She believed that education could lead the child to develop the best rather than the worst of his or her characteristics. The educational ideas she put forth in England would be considered 'progressive' today. In the early nineteenth century such ideas were radical. Lady Byron was not only pioneering, but brave. From that first Infant School at Seaham to her major accomplishments in establishing Co-Operative Schools in England, Lady Byron has received little, if any, credit. One article in the 1990s singled her out. Bryan W. Taylor wrote, 'What is certain is that Lady Byron was a member of that small group that includes Jeremy Bentham and Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who's work for education was considerable. In Lady Byron's case public recognition has largely been withheld.'"
"Lady Byron held the belief that a person's character is formed during the early years through absorbing the lessons Nature teaches. The operative word in all of her educational writings is 'cheerfulness'. One does not stuff the adult into the child."
"Romantics such as Lord Byron's friend and biographer Thomas Moore did not exalt the humanity but the necessary inhumanity of Genius. Byron's deep flaws were necessary fodder for Art. In Moore's 1830 biography of the poet, he wrote that Byron's capitalized 'Imagination' took him so far beyond the bonds of humanity, that it was close to a necessity for his marriage to fail. The 'entire man' must be sacrificed to his poetry. A great poet cannot be happy or bring happiness to others."
"Greatness of the very highest order is never appreciated here, to the fullest extent until after the great man's (or woman's) death. My ambition should be rather to be great than to be thought so." -Ada Lovelace
"She was willing to be on the committee of the New College but she refused to be Patroness when asked: 'I want to give advice without authority to enforce it.'"
"When I am forced into a position of Antagonism, one of the greatest pains I suffer and the least understood, is the suppression of kind feelings. I am so sorry, even grieved, for those who are suffering from false visions of relative facts, or from internal warfare, that I long to express sympathy, & yet my own course (which I suppose to be that of truth) would be damaged, as people thing, by my doing so. Is there no way of reconciling the want to be kind with the duty to be true?" -Lady Byron.
"The world may finally forgive the man of genius anything; but for a woman there is no mercy and no redemption." -Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Lady Byron made no attempt to censure records and never attempted to shape her life in order to find favor with the world. She was herself. She remained herself. Perhaps the time has come to realize that history is also her story."
This book is not well written but I am glad I read it and the four stars come from the connection I made with Lady Byron as I see in her some of my own shortcomings and that is always a growing experience. That being said, I would only recommend this one if you really want to see both sides of the Byron debacle and you have a strong constitution because the book can be difficult to follow and the incredibly terrible things that some of these people did to each other, especially to their children, can make you have nightmares at night. (I am not kidding, I actually experienced a nightmare after reading this one evening before bed.) I am grateful for a contemporary apologist for Lady Byron. Dear Harriet Beecher Stowe made a valiant effort at bring Lady Byron into a positive light but she was a bit overwrought in her approach and in some ways she did more harm than good.
I am actually really pleased with Lady Byron's choice not to remarry and to carry on doing good on her own and I do not see her simply as a woman who continued to pine away for Lord Byron. I think she did marvelous things and I find it so frustrating that she continues to be at best forgotten and at worst vilified for her choices. She was by no means perfect, but I think she did the best she could with what she had and the culture she was living in and I am grateful for the difference she has made by giving us the works of George MacDonald, strengthening the abolitionist movement in America, creating a school and school programs that were decades ahead of their time, and many other contributions. You go, girl!
I have a number of quotes that I need to remember...
"Reader, prepare for a train wreck." (Seriously, this cracked me up, but I should have heeded the warning!)
"So it was on the night of January 14 Annabella came to Byron's quarters to say goodbye. Augusta was in the room with him. In a mocking tone Byron asked his wife, 'When shall we three meet again?' They had journeyed past the underlying eroticism of The Taming the Shrew to the opening lines of Macbeth. The curtain rises on a miserable night. The first witch asks the others round the cauldron: 'When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?'
'In heaven, I hope,' Annabella answered without missing a beat. She turned and left."
"Although she returned from Scotland 'appalled at the desert, which seemed to spread before me,' she brought back with her the educational concept of 'cheerfulness' which she could not feel, but which she spread among needy children."
"She believed that education could lead the child to develop the best rather than the worst of his or her characteristics. The educational ideas she put forth in England would be considered 'progressive' today. In the early nineteenth century such ideas were radical. Lady Byron was not only pioneering, but brave. From that first Infant School at Seaham to her major accomplishments in establishing Co-Operative Schools in England, Lady Byron has received little, if any, credit. One article in the 1990s singled her out. Bryan W. Taylor wrote, 'What is certain is that Lady Byron was a member of that small group that includes Jeremy Bentham and Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who's work for education was considerable. In Lady Byron's case public recognition has largely been withheld.'"
"Lady Byron held the belief that a person's character is formed during the early years through absorbing the lessons Nature teaches. The operative word in all of her educational writings is 'cheerfulness'. One does not stuff the adult into the child."
"Romantics such as Lord Byron's friend and biographer Thomas Moore did not exalt the humanity but the necessary inhumanity of Genius. Byron's deep flaws were necessary fodder for Art. In Moore's 1830 biography of the poet, he wrote that Byron's capitalized 'Imagination' took him so far beyond the bonds of humanity, that it was close to a necessity for his marriage to fail. The 'entire man' must be sacrificed to his poetry. A great poet cannot be happy or bring happiness to others."
"Greatness of the very highest order is never appreciated here, to the fullest extent until after the great man's (or woman's) death. My ambition should be rather to be great than to be thought so." -Ada Lovelace
"She was willing to be on the committee of the New College but she refused to be Patroness when asked: 'I want to give advice without authority to enforce it.'"
"When I am forced into a position of Antagonism, one of the greatest pains I suffer and the least understood, is the suppression of kind feelings. I am so sorry, even grieved, for those who are suffering from false visions of relative facts, or from internal warfare, that I long to express sympathy, & yet my own course (which I suppose to be that of truth) would be damaged, as people thing, by my doing so. Is there no way of reconciling the want to be kind with the duty to be true?" -Lady Byron.
"The world may finally forgive the man of genius anything; but for a woman there is no mercy and no redemption." -Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Lady Byron made no attempt to censure records and never attempted to shape her life in order to find favor with the world. She was herself. She remained herself. Perhaps the time has come to realize that history is also her story."
February 11, 2016
Oh Annabella, I've always struggled to have any sympathy with you. This book hasn't made it any easier I'm afraid.
Why on earth did you do it? Surely the warning bells were ringing SO damn loudly - they must have deafened you?
An heiress, pretty, bright and clever, any amount of suitors wanting your hand in marriage - and yet you married Byron!
Yes, he was very good looking, dark, brooding, famous .............but let's have a quick look at what those bells must have been saying.
Ok so he was renowned for various lovers, both male and female, but surely men like Byron were entitled to play the field a little.
Let's ignore the fact that the rumour machine was full of a rather too close relationship with a woman 40 years his senior (Lady Melbourne) and that this lady was your AUNT!
And how about his liaison with your COUSIN Lady Caroline Lamb. A sexual melodrama replete with public tantrums and meltdowns that scandalised all of London.
If that wasn't enough, then what about his incestuous relationship with his half sister Augusta Leigh? A relationship that resulted in the birth of a daughter, Medora. The whole world was tittle tattling about that too!
However, no doubt you felt that 'your love' would 'save Byron from himself' - and ahead you went.
No surprises then when it all started to unravel on your honeymoon - literally as you drove away from your childhood home with your husband at your side.
Instead of spending the rest of your life raking over the Byronic ashes you should have remarried - someone who appreciated and loved you, had a dozen children - in fact you should have MOVED ON.
Markus writes about her subject with great compassion but it failed to persuade me to think any differently about her.
Why on earth did you do it? Surely the warning bells were ringing SO damn loudly - they must have deafened you?
An heiress, pretty, bright and clever, any amount of suitors wanting your hand in marriage - and yet you married Byron!
Yes, he was very good looking, dark, brooding, famous .............but let's have a quick look at what those bells must have been saying.
Ok so he was renowned for various lovers, both male and female, but surely men like Byron were entitled to play the field a little.
Let's ignore the fact that the rumour machine was full of a rather too close relationship with a woman 40 years his senior (Lady Melbourne) and that this lady was your AUNT!
And how about his liaison with your COUSIN Lady Caroline Lamb. A sexual melodrama replete with public tantrums and meltdowns that scandalised all of London.
If that wasn't enough, then what about his incestuous relationship with his half sister Augusta Leigh? A relationship that resulted in the birth of a daughter, Medora. The whole world was tittle tattling about that too!
However, no doubt you felt that 'your love' would 'save Byron from himself' - and ahead you went.
No surprises then when it all started to unravel on your honeymoon - literally as you drove away from your childhood home with your husband at your side.
Instead of spending the rest of your life raking over the Byronic ashes you should have remarried - someone who appreciated and loved you, had a dozen children - in fact you should have MOVED ON.
Markus writes about her subject with great compassion but it failed to persuade me to think any differently about her.
July 17, 2018
Lady Byron became one of the most notorious women in Victorian England after she separated from her husband, one of the most famous poets in the country. Byron's poetry was so popular, both among the public and critics, that many people thought he could do no wrong. And women were supposed to put up with the casual cruelties of their husbands. When Byron wrote about his wife as being cold and manipulative, he was believed. Much of his cruel behavior as well as his incestuous relationship with his half-sister were unknown to the public until long after his death. Even modern critics tend to forgive all sins to a poetic genius like Byron. Julia Markus has written this book to present Lady Byron's side of the story and it is a fascinating account of the behavior and views of the aristocrats of the early 19th century. Scandalous behavior and sexual abuse were just as rampant then as they seem to be now. This biography helps us to understand both Byron and his wife and the way they both reacted to the society they lived in.
October 1, 2017
Amazing! I have read so many books about Byron, and she is always portrayed as a dull stick in the mud. So great to read about what an intelligent, lively, generous and modern-minded (maybe visionary?) woman she actually was. I wish there had been more about her philanthropic endeavors and friendships. By the end, when it was reiterated how short her relationship with Byron was, it seemed unfair that it had overshadowed most of her life (and this book).
October 14, 2020
Of all the Romantic poets I enjoy Lord Byron the least. This book made me dislike him even more. What a horrid person. But let’s not dwell on him, as this book is about his wife Annabella Milbanke. As odious as Byron was, Annabella was remarkable in her own way.
This biography recounts in detail the life and times of a woman who demonstrated remarkable character. She went against the grain of established and expected roles set out for women in the Regency. She was a great supporter of education and set up the first Infants School and Co-Operative school in England. A poet and a mathematician she was also the mother of Ada Lovelace who is now recognized as a pioneer of computer science. She was adored by Harriet Beecher Stowe. All in all, a remarkable woman who swam against the currents of the times.
The biography is supported by numerous illustrations and is thoroughly researched. The problem I had with the book was its writing. I constantly felt out of sync with the text. Somehow my mind could not find a rhythm with the writing. This could well be my issue and not the writing of Julia Markus. Perhaps it was the fact that the life of Annabella would rival, indeed surpass, the convoluted storylines of a soap opera.
I would definitely recommend this book to a person who has an interest in the Regency period, the life of Annabella or her twisted husband Lord Byron. With that recommendation would, however, come my comments above.
This biography recounts in detail the life and times of a woman who demonstrated remarkable character. She went against the grain of established and expected roles set out for women in the Regency. She was a great supporter of education and set up the first Infants School and Co-Operative school in England. A poet and a mathematician she was also the mother of Ada Lovelace who is now recognized as a pioneer of computer science. She was adored by Harriet Beecher Stowe. All in all, a remarkable woman who swam against the currents of the times.
The biography is supported by numerous illustrations and is thoroughly researched. The problem I had with the book was its writing. I constantly felt out of sync with the text. Somehow my mind could not find a rhythm with the writing. This could well be my issue and not the writing of Julia Markus. Perhaps it was the fact that the life of Annabella would rival, indeed surpass, the convoluted storylines of a soap opera.
I would definitely recommend this book to a person who has an interest in the Regency period, the life of Annabella or her twisted husband Lord Byron. With that recommendation would, however, come my comments above.
October 16, 2017
Me ha impactado este libro. Si rodaran las vidas de estos personajes en una telenovela no te la creerías, pero lo más fuerte es que son reales. Aquí pasa de todo. Menudo pájaro, Lord Byron...
May 23, 2018
Julia Markus's Lady Byron and Her Daughters aims to reclaim a good reputation for Lady Byron long after her death and, in the process gives a warranted critique of the belief at the time that though Lady Byron's marriage to Lord Byron was abusive and dangerous, he was a literary genius and deserved a loving and devoted wife (one can't help but also see Markus' critique of current times as well, as the belief in one person's great contributions to their field/the world excuses their misdeeds and horrors is still a pervasive one).
Lady Byron was the wife of Lord Byron until, after suffering mental and emotional abuse (with threats of physical abuse) and the adulterous and incestuous (yes) ways of her husband, she finally left him for her own safety, as well as that of their newborn daughter, Ada (later to become Ada Lovelace upon her marriage). Lady Byron was an incredibly smart, generous, and loving woman who also became and education pioneer. She was not without faults, as she constantly made excuses for Byron and his half-sister/lover even after the divorce, and was not always the most present or involved mother. She was willfully blind to her own emotions and one can imagine that she died with many regrets, long after the death of her (ex) husband, daughter, husband's daughter with his half-sister (who became a wretched, though eventually redeemed, second daughter to Lady Byron), and Byron's half-sister, who for all her faults and treacheries Lady Byron mostly loved anyway.
The book started off utterly fascinating and disturbing. No soap opera could ever possibly come close to what it is written in this biography. However, Markus writes like everyone who picks up the book has done the level of academic research into the lives of these people that she has and it often leaves the reader feeling like their missing some sort of inside joke or like they're not a part of "the gang". She also writes with, on occasion, a distinctly Victorian Age flair that I found confusing at times and annoying at others. Many chunks of this book felt like they were drawn on far too long or not necessary at all, and with 100 pages left, I lost interest. I'm glad I persevered and finished reading, because it did eventually get more interesting, but these elements resulted in the 2 star rating I have given it.
Lady Byron was the wife of Lord Byron until, after suffering mental and emotional abuse (with threats of physical abuse) and the adulterous and incestuous (yes) ways of her husband, she finally left him for her own safety, as well as that of their newborn daughter, Ada (later to become Ada Lovelace upon her marriage). Lady Byron was an incredibly smart, generous, and loving woman who also became and education pioneer. She was not without faults, as she constantly made excuses for Byron and his half-sister/lover even after the divorce, and was not always the most present or involved mother. She was willfully blind to her own emotions and one can imagine that she died with many regrets, long after the death of her (ex) husband, daughter, husband's daughter with his half-sister (who became a wretched, though eventually redeemed, second daughter to Lady Byron), and Byron's half-sister, who for all her faults and treacheries Lady Byron mostly loved anyway.
The book started off utterly fascinating and disturbing. No soap opera could ever possibly come close to what it is written in this biography. However, Markus writes like everyone who picks up the book has done the level of academic research into the lives of these people that she has and it often leaves the reader feeling like their missing some sort of inside joke or like they're not a part of "the gang". She also writes with, on occasion, a distinctly Victorian Age flair that I found confusing at times and annoying at others. Many chunks of this book felt like they were drawn on far too long or not necessary at all, and with 100 pages left, I lost interest. I'm glad I persevered and finished reading, because it did eventually get more interesting, but these elements resulted in the 2 star rating I have given it.
April 29, 2016
Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Lady Byron and Her Daughters is a fantastic feminist biography of Byron’s wife, Annabella (Anne Isabella Milbanke). Annabella is usually remembered as the estranged wife of Lord Byron and the controlling mother of Ada Lovelace. This biography paints a more well-rounded picture of a woman who has often been portrayed as prudish and controlling, and points out her many contributions to education and philanthropy.
The biography is about Annabella, so the focus stays on her, but this can be frustrating because so many fascinating people pass in and out of the book as they pass in and out of Annabella’s life. The book also tends to be so firmly in the pro-Annabella camp that she comes off as annoyingly saintly. While the biographer states that she has flaws, she rarely shows those flaws in action. Annabella’s biggest flaw seems to have been that she was unable to articulate what she wanted for herself and always thought of others first. That could be incredibly passive-aggressive but it’s never actually portrayed that way. Instead, it comes off like the kind of flaw you might invent for a job interviewer (“What’s my biggest flaw? It’s that I care about my job TOO much”).
Readers should be advised that the Romantics were fairly miserable people and as such the book contains allegations of pedophilia, rape, incest, domestic violence, eating disorders, and mental illness, so it’s not a happy read, although Annabella comes off as pretty triumphant. Ada’s death of cancer in particular is incredibly horrible to read. Interestingly, the biographer doesn’t even give Annabella’s cause of death (breast cancer), and alludes only briefly to her experiencing pain during death. Annabella is described as having a very Victorian death consisting of a long, slow, increasingly saintly wasting away.
Despite its flaws, this is a great, though not cheerful biography of an often-overlooked person and her contributions to the world. It’s highly readable and well researched, with a ton of rather torrid drama – I read it in three dizzy days during which, if you’ll pardon the cliché, I could not put it down. The book gives a great picture of the seamier side of Regency life and the cracks in polite early Victorian society. The book gives great insights into Annabella but also into Augusta, Byron, and Ada. It left me feeling a much richer understanding of the Romantic movement and the casualties the movement left in its wake, and it left me with a greater understanding of what life might be like for a woman of high social standing and independent means.
- Carrie S.
Lady Byron and Her Daughters is a fantastic feminist biography of Byron’s wife, Annabella (Anne Isabella Milbanke). Annabella is usually remembered as the estranged wife of Lord Byron and the controlling mother of Ada Lovelace. This biography paints a more well-rounded picture of a woman who has often been portrayed as prudish and controlling, and points out her many contributions to education and philanthropy.
The biography is about Annabella, so the focus stays on her, but this can be frustrating because so many fascinating people pass in and out of the book as they pass in and out of Annabella’s life. The book also tends to be so firmly in the pro-Annabella camp that she comes off as annoyingly saintly. While the biographer states that she has flaws, she rarely shows those flaws in action. Annabella’s biggest flaw seems to have been that she was unable to articulate what she wanted for herself and always thought of others first. That could be incredibly passive-aggressive but it’s never actually portrayed that way. Instead, it comes off like the kind of flaw you might invent for a job interviewer (“What’s my biggest flaw? It’s that I care about my job TOO much”).
Readers should be advised that the Romantics were fairly miserable people and as such the book contains allegations of pedophilia, rape, incest, domestic violence, eating disorders, and mental illness, so it’s not a happy read, although Annabella comes off as pretty triumphant. Ada’s death of cancer in particular is incredibly horrible to read. Interestingly, the biographer doesn’t even give Annabella’s cause of death (breast cancer), and alludes only briefly to her experiencing pain during death. Annabella is described as having a very Victorian death consisting of a long, slow, increasingly saintly wasting away.
Despite its flaws, this is a great, though not cheerful biography of an often-overlooked person and her contributions to the world. It’s highly readable and well researched, with a ton of rather torrid drama – I read it in three dizzy days during which, if you’ll pardon the cliché, I could not put it down. The book gives a great picture of the seamier side of Regency life and the cracks in polite early Victorian society. The book gives great insights into Annabella but also into Augusta, Byron, and Ada. It left me feeling a much richer understanding of the Romantic movement and the casualties the movement left in its wake, and it left me with a greater understanding of what life might be like for a woman of high social standing and independent means.
- Carrie S.
April 4, 2016
Lady Byron and Her Daughters
I have always wondered about Lady Byron for she and her husband, Lord Byron, were two very mismatched people. For years, his reputation as a major poet overshadowed hers, and after his early death, his friends maintained that reputation and slandered hers. The news of his incest with his sister and their child was generally suppressed, but rumors did abound. Julia Markus tells us the story of this remarkable woman who maintained her privacy about her marriage and its dissolution. Lady Byron also cared passionately about education and had the means to make a difference. She founded the first Infants School in England and a Co-Operative School, too. Markus also describes the life of Lord Byron’s two daughters. Ada Lovelace, his legitimate one, could indulge her passion for math and was a pioneer in computer science. She foresaw that ideas or knowledge could be computerized and then manipulated. A far seeing woman, she eventually became a passionate gambler, trying to use her gift with numbers. Medora, Byron’s other daughter by his sister, also became acquainted with Lady Byron, who took an interest in her life and tried to assist her, at least financially. This is a complex family story that begins in the Regency Period with all its excesses and ends with the morality of the Victorians, two opposite worldviews, and it is an absorbing book.
I have always wondered about Lady Byron for she and her husband, Lord Byron, were two very mismatched people. For years, his reputation as a major poet overshadowed hers, and after his early death, his friends maintained that reputation and slandered hers. The news of his incest with his sister and their child was generally suppressed, but rumors did abound. Julia Markus tells us the story of this remarkable woman who maintained her privacy about her marriage and its dissolution. Lady Byron also cared passionately about education and had the means to make a difference. She founded the first Infants School in England and a Co-Operative School, too. Markus also describes the life of Lord Byron’s two daughters. Ada Lovelace, his legitimate one, could indulge her passion for math and was a pioneer in computer science. She foresaw that ideas or knowledge could be computerized and then manipulated. A far seeing woman, she eventually became a passionate gambler, trying to use her gift with numbers. Medora, Byron’s other daughter by his sister, also became acquainted with Lady Byron, who took an interest in her life and tried to assist her, at least financially. This is a complex family story that begins in the Regency Period with all its excesses and ends with the morality of the Victorians, two opposite worldviews, and it is an absorbing book.
January 3, 2016
Markus has written an engaging biography of this remarkable woman, who has figured in literary history as a horrible person and wife to the poet Byron. The more I learn about him the more I agree with Caroline Lamb that he was "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." Certainly that is true for Lady Bryon, an intelligent woman, excellent mathematician, philanthropist, and loving mother and would be mother to the girl Bryon begot on his half-sister in an incestuous relationship that continued till his death. A pity that Annabella married him, but fortunately for her he died not too many years afterwards; what psychological trauma he might have inflicted on the daughter, Ada, that he and wife had one shudders to imagine. (Ada was extremely intelligent, particularly in mathematics and is now thought of as the inventor of computer binary code. Regency England was not a friendly place to intelligent women.)
In her biography of Lady Byron Markus references how Lady Byron's bad reputation began and has continued down to today. Her doing so is fortunate for readers as it alerts the reader to consider that other biographies may be less than accurate (true) and these other biographers taking at face value what Lady Byon's contemporaries (pro-Byron) said about her rather than looking at the evidence afresh.
In her biography of Lady Byron Markus references how Lady Byron's bad reputation began and has continued down to today. Her doing so is fortunate for readers as it alerts the reader to consider that other biographies may be less than accurate (true) and these other biographers taking at face value what Lady Byon's contemporaries (pro-Byron) said about her rather than looking at the evidence afresh.
February 25, 2016
I want to recommend this book because the subject, the poet Byron's wife, is important, long-neglected, and usually misunderstood (Byron's maligning of her was accepted by literary history). This biography does much to remedy this HOWEVER, it is poorly written --with sloppy editing, the use of annoying cliched or hackneyed expressions, oddly structured, too digressive at times--AND weakly documented. Some of the claims are controversial, and while it seems like the evidence is as Markus states, I could not be sure. Because of these problems, this book does not work as either a fun, popular biography or a scholarly one. What a shame.
February 14, 2018
I picked this book up because what I actually wanted (but couldn't find in the library) was a biography about Ada Lovelace. Although Ada is included in this biography the book is about Lady Byron and Ada only really appears in relation to her. I had hoped there would be a bit more about Ada.
After reading this I do have a better, more sympathetic understanding of Lady Byron. I agree with the author she has been wrongly maligned. I remember a recent BBC documentary 'Calculating Ada' that still potrayed Lady Byron as cold and repeating a lot of the myths perpetuated by Byron's supporters.
Despite feeling more informed I cannot give the book a high rating. The main reason I am giving this 3 stars (I did consider only 2) is that it was incredibly difficult to read. I found it so hard to follow. Firstly it is roughly in chronological order but the introduction of other individuals and their relationship with Lady Byron often meant the author heads off into describing their past and future before bringing it back to how this has anything to do with Lady Byron. It can sometimes work but I don't think in this instance the author has managed it seamlessly and I confess I often felt confused. One good example of this was the start of one chapter that focussed on Elizabeth Barrett Brownings elopement and her father's issues with his genetic makeup. It took some time to get back round to Lady Byron and I confess I still have little understanding of how Elizabeth forms an important part of Lady Byron's history.
Secondly, whilst I do want to feel that the information is derived from original sources I don't need every other sentence to contain a direct quote. It really disrupts the flow as the author has had to construct sentences that make sense with a direct quote inserted into them rather than write a sentence that works best within that paragraph.
Finally I feel it was overly long. I think some of the content could have been removed (including some of the direct quotes) and still conveyed much of what the author was getting at.
After reading this I do have a better, more sympathetic understanding of Lady Byron. I agree with the author she has been wrongly maligned. I remember a recent BBC documentary 'Calculating Ada' that still potrayed Lady Byron as cold and repeating a lot of the myths perpetuated by Byron's supporters.
Despite feeling more informed I cannot give the book a high rating. The main reason I am giving this 3 stars (I did consider only 2) is that it was incredibly difficult to read. I found it so hard to follow. Firstly it is roughly in chronological order but the introduction of other individuals and their relationship with Lady Byron often meant the author heads off into describing their past and future before bringing it back to how this has anything to do with Lady Byron. It can sometimes work but I don't think in this instance the author has managed it seamlessly and I confess I often felt confused. One good example of this was the start of one chapter that focussed on Elizabeth Barrett Brownings elopement and her father's issues with his genetic makeup. It took some time to get back round to Lady Byron and I confess I still have little understanding of how Elizabeth forms an important part of Lady Byron's history.
Secondly, whilst I do want to feel that the information is derived from original sources I don't need every other sentence to contain a direct quote. It really disrupts the flow as the author has had to construct sentences that make sense with a direct quote inserted into them rather than write a sentence that works best within that paragraph.
Finally I feel it was overly long. I think some of the content could have been removed (including some of the direct quotes) and still conveyed much of what the author was getting at.
Read
March 13, 2022Really hard to know who the intended audience was. Written as a corrective, Markus assumes a lot of familiarity with the topic- and level of interest. There were offhand references to 150-year old texts and opinions- but also VERY detailed reporting of the minutiae of Lady Byron’s relationship with her husband, his sister, and their offspring.
I’m not a scholar of Romantic poetry; I think I was expecting more of an intellectual family history that illuminated more of the work of these women- maybe even put in the context of early feminism. Mostly it details decades of dysfunctional and abusive relationships. If you’re interested in reading about how people coped with mood disorders and mental illness in wealthy families before the advent of psychotherapy and SSRIs, this book might interest you. Same for intergenerational trauma. Or maybe you’re a mega-Lovelace fan and would like to know everything she said and did while she was dying of uterine cancer. Or maybe you’re the person in that Romantic poetry seminar I didn’t attend who’s thinking, “damn, Byron is being awfully unfair to his wife. I would love to read a book that finally sets the record straight and tells those 19th century fanboys where they can shove it.”
I mean, 4 hypothetical people constitutes an audience, right?
I’m not a scholar of Romantic poetry; I think I was expecting more of an intellectual family history that illuminated more of the work of these women- maybe even put in the context of early feminism. Mostly it details decades of dysfunctional and abusive relationships. If you’re interested in reading about how people coped with mood disorders and mental illness in wealthy families before the advent of psychotherapy and SSRIs, this book might interest you. Same for intergenerational trauma. Or maybe you’re a mega-Lovelace fan and would like to know everything she said and did while she was dying of uterine cancer. Or maybe you’re the person in that Romantic poetry seminar I didn’t attend who’s thinking, “damn, Byron is being awfully unfair to his wife. I would love to read a book that finally sets the record straight and tells those 19th century fanboys where they can shove it.”
I mean, 4 hypothetical people constitutes an audience, right?
July 25, 2023
Anne Isabella Noel Milbanke was born in England in 1792. She was educated by a tutor from Cambridge University, showing a keen interest in learning and a sharp mind. She was very religious and deeply moral, so it was particularly shocking to those who knew her when she developed an obsession with the notorious Lord Byron. She met him for the first time in March 1812, and saw him on many occasions after that. They became engaged in 1814, marrying the following year. Lord and Lady Byron had a daughter, who would be a very influential woman in her own right. Lady Byron also cared for the daughter of Lord Byron and his sister, born out of their incest relationship. I knew a pretty good deal of information about Lord Byron and his daughter, but I never really knew much about Lady Byron. She went through a lot dealing with him, and it was fascinating to see how she managed all of that while trying to be a mother.
I have had this book on my shelf for a while, and finally got around to finishing it. It was well worth the dollar I paid for it. It wasn't my favorite book that I have read this year, but it wasn't the worst either. It was informative, and was a fairly quick read. If you are interested in lives of poets and their families, this would be a really good one to pick up.
I have had this book on my shelf for a while, and finally got around to finishing it. It was well worth the dollar I paid for it. It wasn't my favorite book that I have read this year, but it wasn't the worst either. It was informative, and was a fairly quick read. If you are interested in lives of poets and their families, this would be a really good one to pick up.
December 17, 2017
This book was definitely more about Lady Byron than her daughters; I was wanting to read about Ada Lovelace and misread the title as Lady Byrons Daughters.... missed the crucial "and her". So possibly my rating is a little harsh.
Nonetheless this book was an interesting read about someone who was in contact with a lot of the who's who of the time; but otherwise has been treated as a bit of a footnote in history despite being quite an interesting person themselves.
I particularly enjoyed the details about the transition from the freewheeling Regency to the straight laced Victorian times; and the wide variety of cads and bounders who crossed over. However (minor spoiler alert) at the center of this book is the idea that even during the Regency incest was taboo! I also found the details of the realities of marriage and income for aristocrats interesting.
The writing used a lot of quotes from source material which was interesting. I also found it chopped and changed direction a lot; plus there were quite a few long side chapters to explain people you were not really that interested in. However on balance I think these aspects all add to the overall flavour of the book and the way it gives the colour of the times.
I'd recommend it if you want to find out more about top English society during this period via the mechanism of one particular individuals story, without that persons story overwhelming many other things that were going on.
Oh and Byron was a very unpleasant man.
Nonetheless this book was an interesting read about someone who was in contact with a lot of the who's who of the time; but otherwise has been treated as a bit of a footnote in history despite being quite an interesting person themselves.
I particularly enjoyed the details about the transition from the freewheeling Regency to the straight laced Victorian times; and the wide variety of cads and bounders who crossed over. However (minor spoiler alert) at the center of this book is the idea that even during the Regency incest was taboo! I also found the details of the realities of marriage and income for aristocrats interesting.
The writing used a lot of quotes from source material which was interesting. I also found it chopped and changed direction a lot; plus there were quite a few long side chapters to explain people you were not really that interested in. However on balance I think these aspects all add to the overall flavour of the book and the way it gives the colour of the times.
I'd recommend it if you want to find out more about top English society during this period via the mechanism of one particular individuals story, without that persons story overwhelming many other things that were going on.
Oh and Byron was a very unpleasant man.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 3, 2020
Purchase Lady Byron and Her Daughters here for just $15!
Who needs fiction when history is this rich, interesting and exciting. Julia Markus is a great story teller and this is a fantastic story about a remarkable woman during a time when women had very few rights. Read it, you won't regret it.
Alicia - The Book Grocer
Who needs fiction when history is this rich, interesting and exciting. Julia Markus is a great story teller and this is a fantastic story about a remarkable woman during a time when women had very few rights. Read it, you won't regret it.
Alicia - The Book Grocer
February 15, 2022
My first 2022 read. I found this fascinating for the most part but dragged on a little towards the end. I wish the author shared more of what she was basing things off as she makes some pretty wild claims that often seem at the time to be a bit surreal. I love reading about the women of this era, especially in literary circles and this book is thrumming with tidbits about famous voices of the era. Lady Byron was a damn interesting woman and lived through a lot of crap thanks to Byron. I had no idea he was such a horrible man.
March 17, 2024
I enjoyed this book although I found it a little too opinionated, I would have liked some more references/footnotes etc. Doesn't quite read as an authortative biography. It is a sympathetic telling of Lady Bryon's story and is very informative especially about Ada Lovelace's death and Lady Byron's relationships with her grandchildren. Probably best read alongside other books on the same topic.
December 9, 2025
Idiosyncratic and very personal, though in a good way (I think).
Personally, I like it that the author Markus is very much "invested" in her subject, and I also liked the contemporary cultural referents to Peggy Lee, Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia," and even the Ab Fab comedy series. But these won't be to everyone's taste.
Personally, I like it that the author Markus is very much "invested" in her subject, and I also liked the contemporary cultural referents to Peggy Lee, Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia," and even the Ab Fab comedy series. But these won't be to everyone's taste.
February 20, 2019
Couldn't finish it. I could not get past the horrific editing and insitince on trying to write in the vernacular of the time period and failing horribly. Poor grammar and choppy sentences pulled me away from the interesting subject matter.
July 19, 2019
Really enjoyed this, having read loads of biographies of Ada Lovelace it's great to hear the tales from another perspective.
Read
January 7, 2026I read the foreword and was amazed! Wow what a life! I don't have time to read more of this book now, but it's on my list to finish later.
June 26, 2015
An excellent and solid biography of Lady Byron, a woman who lived through much, was much maligned, and whose many accomplishments have been ignored by history. I enjoyed very much learning about her life, and I appreciated that not only was the focus on her life, but that the author is careful to try and portray her abiding love for Byron, even though it's difficult to imagine how she could hold on to that.
There is a weird jaunt off into the life of Mrs. Jamieson, which I found confusing and never really resolved in importance for me. It's a very thorough book, though, and an interesting read.
Advance reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.
There is a weird jaunt off into the life of Mrs. Jamieson, which I found confusing and never really resolved in importance for me. It's a very thorough book, though, and an interesting read.
Advance reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.
December 16, 2015
As an English major, I always heard little tidbits about how scandalous Byron was, but this book really opened my eyes to the craziness of upper-echelon relationships in Regency England. I was impressed by the number of direct sources that Markus was able to use (imagine saving every letter over your entire life) and the detail she was able to give to the narrative.
I didn't know anything about Ada, so it was great to hear more about a female mathematical whiz at such an unlikely point in history.
I didn't know anything about Ada, so it was great to hear more about a female mathematical whiz at such an unlikely point in history.
December 17, 2015
Strong defense of Lady Byron which throws an interesting light on how she is portrayed in most biographies of her husband. None of the people came to life in this book. Illustrations in text are reproduced unevenly. Maintains that Jeffrey Aspern in Henry James' "The Aspern Papers" is based on Byron when it is much more like the history of Claire Claremont and Shelley.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews