Lord Byron's Strength: Romantic Writing and Commercial Society

by Jerome Christensen

"Contains some of the most striking and sophisticated essays on Byron written in the last two decades... Performs a welcome intervention in the critical literature on Byron and points towards a future direction for Byron studies."--Albion. "An important book... Christensen's grasp on the historical material is impressive, and his explications of poetic passages are persuasive."--Nineteenth Century Studies. According to Jerome Christensen, literary histories of British Romanticism have dealt inadequately with Byron's "lordship"--his singularity as a phenomenal literary success and as the last and greatest aristocratic poet in the language. At first, Byron does not want a poetic career. Then, entrapped by his extraordinary success, he gets one. And once Byron has a career, he ruins it--not by his unsavory sexual practices and political grandstanding, but by publishing his greatest poem. The first extended study of the career and persona of the most celebrated poet of the nineteenth century, Lord Byron's Strength draws on contemporary literary, political, and social theory not only to revise our understanding of Byron but also to reexamine the romanticism of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Scott, Hazlitt, and Shelley.

456 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 1992

Reviews

[Humphrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christensen makes a lot of brilliant readings in this book, and he pulls in an admirable array of source material - particularly that pertaining to the previously under-discussed matter of reception. If you don't agree with his arguments, you will find them provocative - which is probably even more valuable. My complaint is a stylistic one: Christensen is sometimes too dense, and sometimes too vague.