Byron

by Frederic Raphael

This book is a major reappraisal of Byron's poetry, which grapples firmly with the paradox of his work - that in spite of his enormous influence, the magnetic power of his personality, and the fascination of his life, the poetry is often of inferior quality and so inconsistent in its attitudes that Byron's poetic seriousness is inevitably called into question. The focus of the book is the nature of Byron's relationship with his public and its effect on his poetry; a subject that has remained largely unexplored. Dr Martin considers Byron's anomalous position as an aristocrat in a literary market governed by commercial interests and middle class tastes and reading habits. He suggests that the whole of Byron's poetry can be seen as a performance determined by a number of Byron's anxieties about his modernity, his contemporaries, and the image his readers were ready to fashion for him.

Genres: Biography, Autobiography, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published September 1, 1982

About the author

Writer, critic and broadcaster, Frederic Raphael was educated at Charterhouse School and at St John's College, Cambridge. He has written several screenplays and fifteen novels. His The Glittering Prizes was one of the major British and American television successes of the 1970s.

Reviews

[John Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

What marvellous company for however many days I was reading this; no dull moments here. I am in danger of becoming a Byron troll – I'd be in very good company if so. This noble lord was a rockstar before such things were thought of and HE collected trophies of his conquests too.

I wonder what B would have made of Raphael's book? He may have approved of its quirkiness – so much information packed into this 200 + page monologue – no time here for niceties like chapters. Witty, scholarly and a demanding vocabulary throughout – it still managed to be a thoroughly interesting read - but only just. Raphael's determination to impress threatened to upstage even Byron himself at times!

But back to Byron. He enjoyed being a lord and yet he was the champion of the down trodden and those denied justice and wasn't frightened to get his hands dirty (his final days of fighting for Greece and independence can be cited as evidence) and find money to help, where others might be content with merely making plenty of noise about it.In many ways a man's man and yet all those screaming Regency women, often married, throwing themselves at him, and then the boys. His relationship with women in general, not to mention the particular, deserves a dedicated volume in itself. Marriage to a totally unsuitable woman, his passionate relationship with his half sister, Augusta?

His vast output of poetry many hold to be inferior to his prose. All that super human energy how much was that inspired by his withered leg?

The last word to Frederick Raphael: “ It is possible, and probably right, to find pleasure in his company and his work while still remaining this side of idolatry in both respects”.

[Stephen Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed account of Byron's life. I did learn a lot about Byron and I appreciated some of the analysis for example of his poetry, his standing as a poet. It is a strange book as it has no chapters and, quite incredibly, no section breaks either! It is just one long stream of text. As a reader it makes it quite hard to pause and take a breath in between the different stages. Byron is 12! Then he's married! Then he's exiled in shame! Then he's in Italy! Then he's in Greece! Then he dies! The subject matter is quite intriguing and I liked the way the other poets of the time feature - Shelley, Keats. In fact, Shelley sounds really interesting so I'd like to know more about him. But perhaps/hopefully not in a section-less assault from Mr Raphael. Finished at home in Mount Cook, Wellington