George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron

Infobox Writer
name = Lord Byron


caption =
birthdate = birth date|1788|1|22|df=y
birthplace = London, England
deathdate = death date and age|1824|4|19|1788|1|22|df=y
deathplace = Messolonghi, Greece
occupation = Poet, revolutionary
influences = Milton, Pope
influenced = Pushkin, romanticism, Ebenezer Elliott, John Clare

George Gordon Byron, later Noel, 6th Baron Byron FRS (22 January 1788–19 April 1824) was an Anglo-Scottish poet and a leading figure in Romanticism.

Amongst Byron's best-known works are the brief poems "She walks in beauty," and "So, we'll go no more a-roving," and the narrative poems "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and "Don Juan". He is regarded as one of the greatest European poets and remains widely read and influential, both in the English-speaking world and beyond.

Byron's fame rests not only on his writings but also on his life, which featured extravagant living, numerous love affairs, debts, separation, and marital exploits. He was famously described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/13/reviews/970413.13castlet.html]

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. ["Byron had yet to die to make philhellenism generally acceptable" William Plomer "The Diamond of Jannina" (Taplinger Publishing New York 1970)] He died from a fever in Messolonghi in Greece.

Early life

Byron was born in a house on Hollis Street in London,cite news
title = Byron as a Boy.; His Mother's Influence -- His School Days and Mary Chaworth.
work = "The New York Times"
date = 1898-02-26
url = http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E03E3D91638E433A25755C2A9649C94699ED7CF&oref=slogin
accessdate = 2008-07-11 ] the son of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron and his second wife, the former Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Byron's paternal grandparents were Vice-Admiral John "Foulweather Jack" Byron and Sophia Trevanion. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=sRYYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA791#PPA792,M1 "Bibliotheca Cornubiensis: ACatalogue..."] ] Vice Admiral John Byron had circumnavigated the globe and was the younger brother of the 5th Baron Byron, known as "the Wicked Lord."

He was christened George Gordon at St Marylebone Parish Church, after his maternal grandfather, George Gordon of Gight, a descendant of King James I. This grandfather committed suicide in 1779. Byron's mother Catherine had to sell her land and title to pay her husband's debts. John Byron may have married Catherine for her money and, after squandering it, deserted her.Fact|date=June 2007 Catherine regularly experienced mood swings and bouts of melancholy.

Catherine moved back to Scotland shortly afterward, where she raised her son in Aberdeen. On 21 May 1798, the death of Byron's great-uncle, the "wicked" Lord Byron, made the 10-year-old the 6th Baron Byron, inheriting the title and estate, Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, England. His mother proudly took him to England. Byron only lived at his estate infrequently as the Abbey was rented to Lord Grey de Ruthyn, among others, during Byron's adolescence.

In August 1799, Byron entered the school of William Glennie, an Aberdonian in Dulwich. [Jerome McGann, ‘Byron, George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron (1788–1824)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2007] Byron would later say that around this time and beginning when he still lived in Scotland, his governess, May Gray, would come to bed with him at night and "play tricks with his person."cite news
author = Ian Gilmour
work = "The Making of the Poets: Byron and Shelley in Their Time"
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=tjG-lZOR-dYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=byron+may+gray&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
accessdate = 2008-07-11 ] According to Byron, this "caused the anticipated melancholy of my thoughts--having anticipated life."cite web
author = Jeffrey D. Hoeper
title = The Sodomizing Biographer: Leslie Marchand's Portrait of Byron
publisher= Arkansas State University
url = http://engphil.astate.edu/gallery/marchand.html
accessdate = 2008-07-11 ] Gray was dismissed for allegedly beating Byron when he was 11.

Byron received his early formal education at Aberdeen Grammar School. In 1801 he was sent to Harrow, where he remained until July 1805. He represented Harrow during the very first Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's in 1805. [cite web
author = Martin Williamson
title = "The oldest fixture of them all"
publisher = Cricinfo
url = http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/211281.html
accessdate = 2008-07-23 ] After school he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge.

First Travels to the East

Byron racked up numerous debts as a young adult due to what his mother termed a reckless disregard for money. She lived at Newstead during this time, in fear of her son's creditors.

From 1809 to 1811, Byron went on the Grand Tour then customary for a young nobleman. The Napoleonic Wars forced him to avoid most of Europe, and he instead turned to the Mediterranean. Correspondence among his circle of Cambridge friends also suggests that a key motive was the hope of homosexual experience, [Crompton, Louis: "Byron And Greek Love" (1985), pp123–128] and other theories saying that he was worried about a possible dalliance with the married Mary Chatsworth, his former love (the subject of his poem from this time, "To a Lady: On Being Asked My Reason for Quitting England in the Spring.") He travelled from England over Spain to Albania and spent time at the court of Ali Pasha of Ioannina ["In fact (as their critics pointed out) both Byron and Hobhouse were to some extent dependent upon information gleaned by the French resident Francois_Pouqueville, who had in 1805 published an influential travelogue entitled Voyage en Moree, a Constantinople, en Albanie...1798-1801" Drummond Bone The Cambridge Companion to Byron (Cambridge Companions to Literature)] , and in Athens. For most of the trip, he had a traveling companion in his friend John Cam Hobhouse.

While in Athens, Byron had a torrid love affair with Nicolò Giraud, a boy of 15 or 16 who was teaching him Italian. Byron sent Giraud to school at a monastery in Malta and bequeathed him seven thousand pounds sterling – almost double what he was later to spend refitting the Greek fleet. The will, however, was later cancelled (MacCarthy, p.135).MacCarthy, Fiona: "Byron: Life and Legend". John Murray, 2002.]

Later love life

After this break-up of his domestic life Byron again left England, forever as it turned out. He passed through Belgium and continued up the Rhine River. In the summer of 1816 he settled at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland with his personal physician, John William Polidori. There Byron befriended the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Shelley's future wife Mary Godwin. He was also joined by Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had had an affair in London. Byron initially refused to have anything to do with Claire, and would only agree to remain in her presence with the Shelleys, who eventually persuaded Byron to accept and provide for Allegra, the child she bore him in January 1817.Fact|date=June 2007

Kept indoors at the Villa Diodati by the "incessant rain" of "that wet, ungenial summer" over three days in June, the five turned to reading fantastical stories, including "Fantasmagoriana", and then devising their own tales. Mary Shelley produced what would become "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus" and Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron's to produce "The Vampyre", the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre.Fact|date=June 2007 Byron's story fragment was published as a postscript to "Mazeppa"; he also wrote the third canto of "Childe Harold". Byron wintered in Venice, pausing his travels when he fell in love with Marianna Segati, in whose Venice house he was lodging, and who was soon replaced by 22-year-old Margarita Cogni; both women were married. Cogni could not read or write, and she left her husband to move into Byron's Venice house. Their fighting often caused Byron to spend the night in his gondola; when he asked her to leave the house, she threw herself into the Venetian canal.

In 1817, he journeyed to Rome. On returning to Venice, he wrote the fourth canto of "Childe Harold". About the same time, he sold Newstead and published "Manfred", "Cain", and "The Deformed Transformed". The first five cantos of "Don Juan" were written between 1818 and 1820, during which period he made the acquaintance of the young Countess Guiccioli, who found her first love in Byron, who in turn asked her to elope with him. It was about this time that he received a visit from Thomas Moore, to whom he confided his autobiography or "life and adventures," which Moore, Hobhouse and Byron's publisher, John Murray, burned in 1824, a month after Byron's death.cite web
author = Mark Bostridge
date = 2002-11-03
title = On the trail of the real Lord Byron
publisher= "The Independent on Sunday"
url = http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/on-the-trail-of-the-real-lord-byron-603280.html
accessdate = 2008-07-22 ]

Children

Byron had a child with Anne Isabella Milbanke ("Annabella"), who was Augusta Ada Byron, Lady Byron, later Lady Wentworth:

* The Hon. Ada Augusta Byron (10 December 1815-29 November 1852), later Countess of Lovelace

Ada Lovelace, notable in her own right, collaborated with Charles Babbage on the analytical engine, a predecessor to modern computers.

He also had one illegitimate child with Claire Clairmont, stepsister of Mary Shelley and stepdaughter of "Political Justice" and "Caleb Williams" writer, William Godwin:

* Clara Allegra Noel-Byron (12 January 1817-20 April 1822).

Allegra is not entitled to the style "The Hon." as is usually given to the daughter of barons since she was illegitimate. Born in Switzerland in 1817, Allegra lived with Byron for a few months in Venice; he refused to allow an Englishwoman caring for the girl to adopt her, nor for her to be raised in the Shelleys' household. He wished for her to be brought up Catholic and not marry an Englishman. He made arrangements for her to inherit 5,000 lira upon marriage or reaching age 21, provided she did not marry a native of Britain.cite web
author = Karl Elze
date = 1886
title = "Lord Byron"
publisher= "Google Books"
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=kDYBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=lord+byron+thorwaldsen&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
accessdate = 2008-07-11 ] However, the girl died at five years old of a fever in Bagna Cavallo, Italy while Byron was in Pisa; he was deeply upset by the news. He had Allegra's body sent back to England to be buried at his old school, Harrow, because Protestants could not be buried in consecrated ground in Catholic countries. At one time he himself had wanted to be buried at Harrow. Byron was indifferent towards Allegra's mother, Claire Clairmont.

Political career

Byron eventually took his seat in the House of Lords in 1811, shortly after his return from the Levant, and made his first speech there on 27 February 1812. A strong advocate of social reform, he received particular praise as one of the few Parliamentary defenders of the Luddites: specifically, he was against a death penalty for Luddite "frame breakers" in Nottinghamshire, who destroyed textile machines that were putting them out of work. His first speech before the Lords was loaded with sarcastic references to the "benefits" of automation, which he saw as producing inferior material as well as putting people out of work. He said later that he "spoke very violent sentences with a sort of modest impudence" and thought he came across as "a bit theatrical". [Thomas Moore, "Life of Lord Byron, with his Letters & Journals", published in 1829, Vol. 1, pp. 154 and 676.] In another Parliamentary speech he expressed opposition to the established religion because it was unfair to people of other faiths. ["Ibid", p. 679.] These experiences inspired Byron to write political poems such as "Song for the Luddites" (1816) and "The Landlords' Interest" (1823). Examples of poems in which he attacked his political opponents include "Wellington: The Best of the Cut-Throats" (1819) and "The Intellectual Eunuch Castlereagh" (1818).Fact|date=June 2007 [Note: "The Landlords' Interest" will not be found in any Byron anthology; it is Canto XIV of "The Age Of Bronze" (1823)]

Life abroad

Byron and the Armenians in Venice

Ultimately, Byron resolved to escape the censure of British society (due to his perceived sodomy and allegations of incest) by living abroad, thereby freeing himself of the need to conceal his sexual interests (MacCarthy pp.86, 314). Byron left England in 1816 and did not return for the last eight years of his life, even to bury his daughter.

In 1816, Byron visited Saint Lazarus Island in Venice where he acquainted himself with Armenian culture through the Mekhitarist Order. He learned the Armenian language from Fr. H. Avgerian and attended many seminars about language and history. He wrote "English grammar and the Armenian" in 1817, and "Armenian grammar and the English" (1819) in which he quoted samples from classical and modern Armenian. He participated in the compilation of "English Armenian dictionary" (1821) and wrote the preface where he explained the relationship of the Armenians with and the oppression of the Turkish "pashas" and the Persian satraps, and their struggle of liberation. His two main translations are the "Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians", several chapters of Khorenatsi's "Armenian History" and sections of Lambronatsi's "Orations".Fact|date=June 2007 When in Polis he discovered discrepancies in the Armenian vs. the English version of the Bible and translated some passages that were either missing or deficient in the English version. His fascination was so great that he even considered a replacement of Cain story of the Bible with that of the legend of Armenian patriarch Haik.Fact|date=June 2007 He may be credited with the birth of Armenology and its propagation.Fact|date=June 2007 His profound lyricism and ideological courage has inspired many Armenian poets, the likes of Fr. Ghevond Alishan, Smbat Shahaziz, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Ruben Vorberian and others.Fact|date=June 2007

Byron had a bust sculpted of him by Bertel Thorvaldsen at this time.

Byron in Italy and Greece

In 1821 to 1822, he finished Cantos 6–12 of "Don Juan" at Pisa, and in the same year he joined with Leigh Hunt and Percy Bysshe Shelley in starting a short-lived newspaper, "The Liberal", in the first number of which appeared "The Vision of Judgment." His last Italian home was Genoa, where he was still accompanied by the Countess Guiccioli, and where he met Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington and Marguerite, Countess of Blessington and provided the material for her work "Conversations with Lord Byron", an important text in the reception of Byron in the period immediately after his death.

Byron lived in Genoa until 1823 when— growing bored with his life there and with the CountessFact|date=July 2008— he accepted overtures for his support from representatives of the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.Fact|date=June 2007 On 16 July, Byron left Genoa on the "Hercules", arriving at Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands on 4 August. He spent £4000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet, then sailed for Messolonghi in western Greece, arriving on 29 December to join Alexandros Mavrokordatos, a Greek politician with military power.Fact|date=June 2007 During this time, Byron pursued his Greek page, Lukas Chalandritsanos, but the affections went unrequited. When the famous Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen heard about Byron's heroics in Greece, he voluntarily resculpted his earlier bust of Byron in Greek marble.

Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto, at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. Byron employed a fire-master to prepare artillery and took part of the rebel army under his own command and pay, despite his lack of military experience, but before the expedition could sail, on 15 February 1824, he fell ill, and the usual remedy of bleeding weakened him further.Fact|date=June 2007 He made a partial recovery, but in early April he caught a violent cold which the bleeding — insisted on by his doctors — aggravated. The cold became a violent fever, and he died on 19 April.Fact|date=June 2007 It has been said that had Byron lived, he might have been declared King of Greece.

Post mortem

Alfred, Lord Tennyson would later recall the shocked reaction in Britain when word was received of Byron's death. The Greeks mourned Lord Byron deeply, and he became a hero. The national poet of Greece, Dionysios Solomos, wrote a poem about his unexpected loss, named "To the Death of Lord Byron." [( [http://www.sarantakos.com/kibwtos/solwmos_lordbyron.html Εις το Θάνατο του Λόρδου Μπάιρον] )] Βύρων ("Vyron"), the Greek form of "Byron", continues in popularity as a masculine name in Greece, and a suburb of Athens is called Vyronas in his honour.

Byron's body was embalmed, but the Greeks wanted some part of their hero to stay with them. According to some sources, his heart remained at Messolonghi. [Time Magazine, 1933, ' [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,753874,00.html Heart Burial] '.] According to others,Fact|date=September 2008 it was his lungs, which were placed in an urn that was later lost when the city was sacked. His other remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused for reason of "questionable morality." [ [http://www.neuroticpoets.com/byron/ Neurotic Poets - Lord Byron ] ] Huge crowds viewed his body as he lay in state for two days in London. He is buried at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottingham.

At her request, Ada Lovelace, the child he never knew, was buried next to him. In later years, the Abbey allowed a duplicate of a marble slab given by the King of Greece, which is laid directly above Byron's grave. Byron's friends raised the sum of 1,000 pounds to commission a statue of the writer; Thorvaldsen offered to sculpt it for that amount. However, when the statue was completed in 1834, most British institutions it was offered to turned it down for more than 10 years as it remained in storage-- the British Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the National Gallery in turn. Trinity College, Cambridge finally placed the statue of Byron in its library.

In 1969, 145 years after Byron's death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey. [http://www.westminster-abbey.org/visitor/plan-of-the-abbey/13614 ] ] The memorial had been lobbied for since 1907; "The New York Times" wrote, "People are beginning to ask whether this ignoring of Byron is not a thing of which England should be ashamed... a bust or a tablet might put in the Poets' Corner and England be relieved of ingratitude toward one of her really great sons."cite news
title = Byron Monument for the Abbey: Movement to Get Memorial in Poets' Corner Is Begun
work = "The New York Times"
date = 1907-07-12
url = http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D02E2DF173EE033A25750C1A9619C946697D6CF
accessdate = 2008-07-11 ]

Upon his death, the barony passed to a cousin, George Anson Byron, [(1789–1868)] a career military officer and Byron's polar opposite in temperament and lifestyle.Fact|date=June 2007

Poetic works

Byron wrote prolifically. [ [http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-list.htm List of Byron's works] . Retrieved on ?.] In 1833 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 17 duodecimo volumes, including a life by Thomas Moore.

Although Byron falls chronologically into the period most commonly associated with Romantic poetry, much of his work looks back to the satiric tradition of Alexander Pope and John Dryden.

"Don Juan"

Byron's magnum opus, "Don Juan", a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since Milton's "Paradise Lost".Fact|date=June 2007 The masterpiece, often called the epic of its time, has roots deep in literary tradition and, although regarded by early Victorians as somewhat shocking, equally involves itself with its own contemporary world at all levels—social, political, literary and ideological.

Byron published the first two cantos anonymously in 1819 after disputes with his regular publisher over the shocking nature of the poetry; by this time, he had been a famous poet for seven years and when he self-published the beginning cantos, they were well-received in some quarters.cite web
author = Duncan Wu
work = "A Companion to Romanticism"
publisher= Blackwell Publishing via Google Books
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=kJCHB0tqd1kC&pg=PA247&lpg=PA247&dq=byron+don+juan+published+anonymously&source=web&ots=uVK-1l0wWi&sig=cgQQvS-mGIXaEloX9_FpgfdwVjc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result
accessdate = 2008-07-11 ] It was then released volume by volume through his regular publishing house. By 1822, cautious acceptance by the public had turned to outrage, and Byron's publisher refused to continue to publish the works. In Canto III of "Don Juan," Byron expresses his detestation for poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. ["Don Juan", Canto III, XCIII-XCIV.]

Byronic hero

The figure of the Byronic hero pervades much of his work, and Byron himself is considered to epitomize many of the characteristics of this literary figure. Scholars have traced the literary history of the Byronic hero from John Milton, and many authors and artists of the Romantic movement show Byron's influence during the 19th century and beyond, including Charlotte and Emily Bronte. The Byronic hero presents an idealised but flawed character whose attributes includeFact|date=June 2007: having great talent, exhibiting great passion, having a distaste for society and social institutions, expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege, thwarted in love by social constraint or death, rebelling, suffering exile, hiding an unsavoury past, arrogance, overconfidence or lack of foresight, and ultimately, acting in a self-destructive manner.

Parthenon marbles

Byron was a bitter opponent of Lord Elgin's removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greece, and "reacted with fury" when Elgin's agent gave him a tour of the Parthenon in which he saw the missing friezes and metopes. He penned a poem, "The Curse of Minerva," to denounce Elgin's actions. [cite book | last = Atwood | first = Roger | title = "Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, And the Looting of the Ancient World" | year = 2006 | id = ISBN 0312324073 | pages = p. 136]

Character and description

Lord Byron, by all accounts, had a magnetic personality.Fact|date=June 2007 He obtained a reputation as being extravagant, melancholy, courageous, unconventional, eccentric, flamboyant and controversial.cite web
author = Brooke Allen
date = Summer 2003
publisher= "The Hudson Review"
title=Bryon [sic] : Revolutionary, libertine and friend
url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4021/is_200307/ai_n9278558/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1
accessdate = 2008-07-11 ] He was independent and given to extremes of temper; on at least one trip, his traveling companions were so puzzled by his mood swings they thought he was mentally ill. He enjoyed adventure, especially relating to the sea.

He believed his depression was inherited, and he wrote in 1821, "I am not sure that long life is desirable for one of my temper & constitutional depression of Spirits."

Byron was noted even during his time for the extreme loyalty he inspired in his friends. Hobhouse said, "No man lived who had such devoted friends."

Physical description

Byron's adult height was about 5'10", his weight fluctuating between 9 1/2 to 14 stone (133–196 pounds). He was renowned for his personal beauty, which he enhanced by wearing curl-papers in his hair at night.He was athletic, being competent at boxing and an excellent swimmer. At Harrow, he played cricket despite his lameness.

From birth, Byron suffered from an unknown deformity of his right foot, causing a limp that resulted in lifelong misery for him, aggravated by the suspicion that with proper care it might have been cured. However, he refused to wear any type of mechanical device that could improve the limp, although he often wore specially made shoes that would hide the deformed foot.

Byron and other writers such as his friend John Cam Hobhouse left detailed descriptions of his eating habits. From the time that he entered Cambridge he went on a strict diet to control his weight. He also exercised a great deal and at that time wore a great number of clothes to cause himself to perspire. For most of his life he was a vegetarian and often lived for days on dry biscuits and white wine. Occasionally he would eat large helpings of meat and desserts, after which he would purge himself. His friend Hobhouse claimed that when he became overweight, the pain of his deformed foot made it difficult for him to exercise.JH Baron, "Illnesses and creativity: Byron's appetites, James Joyce's gut, and Melba's meals and mésalliances", BJM, (Dec 20th, 1997) [http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/315/7123/1697] ]

Celebrity

Byron is considered to be the first modern-style celebrity. His image as his own Byronic hero personified fascinated the public, and his wife Annabella coined the term "Byromania" to refer to the mania surrounding him. His self-awareness and personal promotion are seen as a beginning to what would become the modern rock star; he would instruct artists painting portraits of him not to paint him with pen or book in hand, but as a "man of action."

While Byron first welcomed fame, he later turned away from it by going into voluntary exile from Britain.

Fondness for animals

Byron had a great fondness for animals, most famously for a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain; when Boatswain contracted rabies, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected.Fact|date=June 2007 Boatswain lies buried at Newstead Abbey and has a monument larger than his master's. Byron at one point expressed interest in being buried next to Boatswain. The inscription, Byron's "Epitaph to a Dog," has become one of his best-known works, reading in part:

:: Near this Spot:: are deposited the Remains of one:: who possessed Beauty without Vanity,:: Strength without Insolence,:: Courage without Ferosity, :: and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.:: This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery:: if inscribed over human Ashes,:: is but a just tribute to the Memory of:: BOATSWAIN, a DOG,:: who was born in Newfoundland May 1803,:: and died at Newstead Nov.^r 18^th, 1808. [ [http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/byron/byron_ind.html A Collection Of Poems By George Gordon Byron ] ]

Byron also kept a bear while he was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge (reputedly out of resentment of Trinity rules forbidding pet dogs—he later suggested that the bear apply for a college fellowship).Fact|date=June 2007 At other times in his life, Byron kept a fox, monkeys, a parrot, cats, an eagle, a crow, a crocodile, a falcon, peacocks, guinea hens, an Egyptian crane, a badger, geese, and a heron.

Lasting influence

The re-founding of the Byron Society in 1971 reflects the fascination that many people have for Byron and his work. [ [http://www.byronsociety.com The Byron Society] . Retrieved on ?.] This society has become very active, publishing a learned annual journal. Today some 36 International Byron Societies function throughout the world, and an International Conference takes place annually. Hardly a year passes without a new book about the poet appearing. In the last 20 years, two new feature films about him have screened, and a television play has been broadcast.Fact|date=June 2007

Byron exercised a marked influence on Continental literature and art, and his reputation as a poet is higher in many European countries than in Britain or America, although not as high as in his time, when he was widely thought to be the greatest poet in the world. Byron has inspired the works of Franz Liszt and Giuseppe Verdi.

Fictional depictions

Byron first appeared as a thinly disguised fictional character in his ex-love Lady Caroline Lamb's book "Glenarvon", published in 1816.

Byron is the main character of the film "Byron" by the Greek film maker Nikos Koundouros.

Byron's spirit is one of the title characters of the "Ghosts of Albion" books by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden, published by Del Rey in 2005 and 2006.

Byron is an immortal still alive in modern times in the hit television show "" in the fifth season episode "The Modern Prometheus," living as a decadent rock star.

John Crowley's novel "Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land At Night" (2005) involves the rediscovery of a lost manuscript by Lord Byron, as does Frederic Prokosch's "The Missolonghi Manuscript" (1968).

Tom Holland, in his 1995 novel "The Vampyre", romantically describes how Lord Byron became a vampire during his first visit to Greece— a fictional transformation that explains much of his subsequent behaviour towards family and friends, and finds support in quotes from Byron poems and the diaries of John Cam Hobhouse. It is written as though Byron is retelling part of his life to his great great-great-great-granddaughter. He describes traveling in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, meeting Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's death and many other events in life around that time. The Byron as vampire character returns in the 1996 sequel "Supping with Panthers".

Byron appears as a character in Tim Powers' "The Stress of Her Regard" (1989) and Walter Jon Williams' novella "Wall, Stone Craft" (1994), and also in Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" (2004).

Byron and Percy and Mary Shelley are portrayed in Roger Corman's final film "Frankenstein Unbound," where the time traveler Dr. Buchanan (played by John Hurt) meets them as well as Victor von Frankenstein (played by Raul Julia).

"The Black Drama" by Manly Wade Wellman [("Weird Tales", 1938; "Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales", 2001)] involves the rediscovery and production of a lost play by Byron (from which Polidori's "The Vampyre" was plagiarised) by a man who purports to be a descendant of the poet.

Tom Stoppard's play "Arcadia" revolves around a modern researcher's attempts to find out what made Byron leave the country.

Television portrayals include a major 2003 BBC drama on Byron's life, and minor appearances in ' (as well as the Shelleys), "Blackadder the Third", "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy", and episode 60 (Darkling) of '.

He makes an appearance in the alternative history novel "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. In a Britain powered by the massive, steam-driven, mechanical computers invented by Charles Babbage, he is leader of the "Industrial Radical Party," eventually becoming Prime Minister.

The events featuring the Shelleys' and Byron's relationship at the house beside Lake Geneva in 1816 have been fictionalized in film at least three times.
#A 1986 British production, "Gothic", directed by Ken Russell, and starring Gabriel Byrne as Byron.
#A 1988 Spanish production, " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093840/ Rowing with the Wind] " ("Remando al viento"), starring Hugh Grant as Byron.
#A 1988 U.S.A. production "Haunted Summer." Adapted by Lewis John Carlino from the speculative novel by Anne Edwards, staring Philip Anglim as Lord Byron.

The brief prologue to "Bride of Frankenstein" includes Gavin Gordon as Byron, begging Mary Shelley to tell the rest of her Frankenstein story.

The writer and novelist, Benjamin Markovits, is in the process of producing a fictional trilogy about the life of Byron. "Imposture" (2007) looked at the poet via his friend and doctor, John Polidori. "A Quiet Adjustment", which came out in January 2008, is an account of Byron's marriage more sympathetic to his wife, Annabella, than many of its predecessors. He is currently writing the third installment.

Byron is portrayed as an immortal in the book, "Divine Fire," by Melanie Jackson.

Musical settings of, or music inspired by, poems by Byron

*Hector Berlioz—"Harold en Italie" (1834) Symphony in four movements for viola and orchestra
*Giuseppe Verdi—"Il corsaro" (1848) Opera in three acts
*Giuseppe Verdi—"I due Foscari" (1844) Opera in three acts
*Robert Schumann—Overture and incidental music to "Manfred" (1849)
*Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky—Manfred Symphony in B minor, Op.58 (1885)
*Hugo Wolf—"Vier Gedichte nach Heine, Shakespeare und Lord Byron" (1896) for voice and piano: 3. Sonne der Schlummerlosen 4. Keine gleicht von allen Schönen
* Pietro Mascagni, "Parisina" (1916) Opera in four acts
*Germaine Tailleferre—"Two Poems of Lord Byron"(1934) 1. Sometimes in moments... 2. 'Tis Done I heard it in my dreams... for Voice and Piano (Tailleferre's only setting of English language texts)
*Arnold Schoenberg—"Ode to Napoleon" (1942) for reciter, string quartet and piano
*Arion Quinn—"She Walks in Beauty" (mid-70s)
*Solefald—"When the Moon is on the Wave" (1997)
*Kris Delmhorst—"We'll Go No More A-Roving" (2006)
*Ariella Uliano—"So We'll Go No More A'Roving" (2004)
*Cockfighter (band)—"Destruction" (2005)
*Leonard Cohen—"No More A-Roving" (2004)
*Cradle Of Filth—"The Byronic Man" with HIMs Ville Valo as Lord Byron (2006)
*Warren Zevon—"Lord Byron's Luggage" (2002)

Bibliography

Major works

*"Hours of Idleness" (1806)
*"English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" (1809) [http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Eng-P1.html]
*"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (1818) [http://www.geocities.com/~bblair/chpindex.htm]
*"The Giaour" (1813) [http://www.photoaspects.com/chesil/byron/giaour.html]
*"The Bride of Abydos" (1813)
*"The Corsair" (1814)
*"Lara" (1814)
*"Hebrew Melodies" (1815)
*"The Siege of Corinth (poem)" (1816)
*"Parisina" (1816)
*"The Prisoner of Chillon" (1816) ()
*"The Dream" (1816)
*"Prometheus" (1816)
*"Darkness" (1816)
*"Manfred" (1817) ()
*"The Lament of Tasso" (1817)
*"Beppo" (1818)
*"Mazeppa" (1819)
*"The Prophecy of Dante" (1819)
*"Marino Faliero" (1820)
*"Sardanapalus" (1821)
*"The Two Foscari" (1821)
*"Cain" (1821)
*"The Vision of Judgement" (1821)
*"Heaven and Earth" (1821)
*"Werner" (1822)
*"The Deformed Transformed" (1822)
*"The Age of Bronze" (1823)
*"The Island" (1823)
*"Don Juan" (1819–1824; incomplete on Byron's death in 1824)

Minor works

*"So, we'll go no more a roving" ()
*"The First Kiss of Love" (1806) ()
*"Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination" (1806) ()
*"To a Beautiful Quaker" (1807) ()
*"The Cornelian" (1807) (}
*"Lines Addressed to a Young Lady" (1807) ()
*"Lachin y Garr" (1807) ()
*"Epitaph to a Dog" (1808) ()
*"She Walks in Beauty" (1814) ()
*"When We Two Parted" ()
*Love's Last Adieu

ee also

*Lord Byron (chronology)
*Bridge of Sighs
*Asteroid 3306 Byron
*Henry Edward Yelverton, 19th Baron Grey de Ruthyn

Further reading

*Grosskurth, Phyllis:"Byron: The Flawed Angel". Hodder, 1997.ISBN 034060753X.
*MacCarthy, Fiona: "Byron: Life and Legend". John Murray, 2002. ISBN 071955621X.
*McGann, Jerome: "Byron and Romanticism". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-521-00722-4.
*Rosen, Fred: "Bentham, Byron and Greece." Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992. ISBN 0198200781
* Harvard University Press Edition of Byron's Letters. Marchand, Leslie A., editor:
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE1.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume I, 'In my hot youth', 1798-1810"] , Harvard University Press, (1973).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE2.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume II, 'Famous in my time', 1810-1812"] , Harvard University Press, (1973).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE3.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume III, 'Alas! the love of women', 1813-1814"] , Harvard University Press, (1974).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE4.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume IV, 'Wedlock's the devil', 1814-1815"] , Harvard University Press, (1975).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE5.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume V, 'So late into the night', 1816-1817"] , Harvard University Press, (1976).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE6.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume VI, 'The flesh is frail', 1818-1819"] , Harvard University Press, (1976).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE7.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume VII, 'Between two worlds', 1820"] , Harvard University Press, (1978).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE8.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume VIII, 'Born for opposition', 1821"] , Harvard University Press, (1978).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLE9.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume IX, 'In the wind's eye', 1821-1822"] , Harvard University Press.
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRL10.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume X, 'A heart for every fate', 1822-1823"] , Harvard University Press, (1980).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRL11.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume XI, 'For freedom's battle', 1823-1824"] , Harvard University Press, (1981).
** [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRL12.html "Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume XII, 'The trouble of an index', index"] , Harvard University Press, (1982).
* Marchand, Leslie A., editor. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BYRLOR.html "Lord Byron: Selected Letters and Journals"] , Harvard University Press, (1982).
** Oueijan, Naji B. "A Compendium of Eastern Elements in Byron’s Oriental Tales". New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1999.
*Thiollet, Jean-Pierre: "Carré d'Art : Barbey d'Aurevilly, lord Byron, Salvador Dali, Jean-Edern Hallier", Anagramme éditions, 2008. ISBN 2 35035 189 6
*Kirkland, John C.: "Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1", CreateSpace (2008). ISBN 1438257244

References

:A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

External links

* [http://www.east-durham.co.uk/seaham/byronswalk/ Pictures of Byron's Walk, Seaham, County Durham]
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81299 Poems by Lord Byron at PoetryFoundation.org]
* [http://www.johnkeats.org A Website of the Romantic Movement]
*gutenberg author |id=George_Byron |name=George Byron
* [http://www.byronsociety.com The Byron Society]
* [http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/byron.htm Byron's Grave]
* [http://www.hucknall-parish-church.org.uk/byron.htm Hucknall Parish Church, Byron's final resting place]
* [http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=501 Statue of Byron at Trinity College, Cambridge]
* [http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/byronchronology/index.html The Byron Chronology]
* [http://www.englishhistory.net/byron/ The Life and Work of Lord Byron]
* [http://www.iatp.am/byron/years.htm Byron's 1816-1824 letters to Murray and Moore about Armenian studies and translations]
* [http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/lord-byron/ Lord George Gordon Byron—Biography & Works]
* [http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/research/byron/ Centre for Byron Studies, University of Nottingham]
* [http://www.online-literature.com/byron/ Byron page on The Literature Network]
* [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/byron.html Byron Collection] at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9794095 George Gordon, Lord Byron] at Find-A-Grave
* [http://byron.strangecompany.org Creative Commons animated adaption of "When We Two Parted"]

Persondata
NAME= Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Byron, Lord
SHORT DESCRIPTION= English Poet
DATE OF BIRTH= birth date|1788|1|22|df=y
PLACE OF BIRTH= London, England
DATE OF DEATH= death date|1824|4|19|df=y
PLACE OF DEATH= Missolonghi, Greece