Byron In Love [Hardcover]

There is 1997's 400+ page BYRON:THE FLAWED ANGEL by Phyllis Grosskurth. There is 1999's colossal, almost 800 page BYRON: CHILD OF PASSION, FOOL OF FAME by Benita Eisler. And then there is 2002's almost 600 page BYRON: LIFE AND LEGEND by Fiona MacCarthy. All three books just mentioned are handsomely designed, graced with vital illustrations and thoroughly researched, wonderfully written and, for anyone wishing to know Byron in rich, deep detail I suggest they seek out these volumes. (Curious that all three of these books - including the one I am about to discuss - are written by women. Byron always attracted the ladies - in his own day down unto the present time, it seems.)

Anyway - along comes Edna O'Brien's take on the great man and poet. There are NO illustrations in this slim volume, despite Publisher's Weekly saying there were eight pages of illustrations in its review. The dustjacket - as designed by Evan Gaffney Design - is amongst the most lurid and cheesy book covers I have ever seen. The book itself: I wonder why it was actually written, in view of the mammoth biographies listed above (not to mention Leslie Marchand's epic three volume LIFE OF BYRON written in the late fifties.) I suppose if someone wants to know something of Lord Byron - but not too much - then this highly condensed and easy read is the book for them. It narrows in on Byron's love life (hence the blatant, trite title) so you will learn next to nothing of his poetry or what made his poetry great. The Diodati summer with the Shelley party is barely mentioned. (The book's jump from his failed marriage to his revels in Venice reminds me of the BBC Production BYRON done a few years ago; while a very good movie, it - like this book - is much too brief.) The authoress even wonders, in her introduction "Why another book on Byron?" - but her answer is quite lame and more non-answer anyway.

Despite great gaps in this telling of Byron's "short, daring life" (which despite only running 36 years comprised at the very least the lives of ten men) so much is quickly crammed in too few pages that, if you knew absolutely NOTHING about Byron, you'd probably end up more baffled than fully informed after reading this book. It would leave you...hungry. It is a TV dinner of a book. I understand Edna O'Brien is "universally recognized as one of our greatest novelists" - at least this is what the inside dustjacket flap informs me below a very posed and Byronesque/ Romantic photo of the writer. Well, if this is truly the case, perhaps it would have been wiser if Ms. O'Brien had written the Byron story as a novel. Now THAT would have been a relatively newer approach to his oft-told tale. Alas, she did not - and what we are left with just made me hunger to reread the three epic works listed at the beginning of this review.

"Byron in Love: A Short Daring Life," gives us a short, daring treatment of the life of George Gordon, Lord Byron, noted romantic poet of the British Regency period. Byron, whom many consider to be the first modern celebrity, a rock star in his own time, composed the longer works "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," and "Don Juan," as well as the famed shorter works "She Walks in Beauty," "When We Two Parted," and "So, We'll Go No More A Roving." He lived most of his life (1788-1824) within what's considered the Regency period in Great Britain; (the time when George IV ascended the throne, although his father, George III was still alive, though mentally incapacitated; the situation required a regency.) This period is most strictly dated from 1811-1820; but is more generally considered to run from 1795-1837, between the English Georgian and Victorian ages. Jane Austen is generally considered the landmark British author of the age; but, despite Austen's pleasantly civilized domestic novels, it was a period of great licentious excess, particularly among the nobility, who were light years removed from, and astronomically richer than, their more ordinary compatriots. And Byron was the most licentious of them all: one of his many mistresses, the well-known Lady Caroline Lamb, notably characterized him as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." And, of course, as these things go, as the yin always calls forth the yang, this era was followed by the prudish and hypocritical Victorian period.

Edna O'Brien, noted Irish author (The Country Girls Trilogy and Epilogue), and most recently The Light of Evening), is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has earned great popularity for her work; also many awards, including the James Joyce Ulysses Medal, a Kingsley Amis Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (for Lantern Slides , 1990.) I cannot think of another author better suited, by coolness of wit and comprehension of unusual behavior, to bring back to life the poet's extraordinarily excessive existence. Byron was a nasty son, a never-satisfied lover of both sexes, a wounding husband and father, a wanton spendthrift, a loyal friend, and a reckless, generally foolish adventurer. However, if I may just interject here; this may be a somewhat novelistic treatment of the poet's life, but Byron, his family, friends and lovers were real people, of the upper castes, and portraits exist of most of them. I wish they'd been given to us here, so we could visualize these people.

Byron was an extraordinarily handsome and charismatic man, although he was born with a club foot and was lame all his life. He was the son of the heavy-set, frequently depressed Scottish noblewoman and heiress Catherine Gordon, second wife of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron; and between the two of them, the pair spent every penny she had. The boy poet was sent to Harrow and Cambridge, two outstanding, prestigious, ancient schools, where the nobility were frequently sent. But Byron found flirtation more satisfying than study. At the age of ten, the poet-to-be inherited land and title from an uncle, becoming "Lord Byron." And it was off to the races with him. In 1812, he had a highly publicized affair with the married Lady Caroline Lamb, scandalizing the English public. He was to marry Lady Caroline's cousin, Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke, also an heiress of the nobility, in 1815. Annabella had a miserable year with the man, as he much preferred his married half-sister Lady Augusta Leigh: both women delivered girls he presumably fathered at about the same time. Annabella soon legally separated from the poet, charging him with sodomy and incest; charges so serious English public opinion strongly turned against him, never to turn again to his favor during his life. So he went abroad. He became close friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley, another famed romantic poet in self-imposed exile, and Shelley's wife, Mary Godwin Shelley, who was to write the world-famous book Frankenstein . Byron fathered yet another daughter on Claire Clairmont, Mary's stepsister, and once again refused any support to mother or daughter. One of his last, best-known affairs was with the Italian Countess Teresa Guiccioli, who was to write a memoir about him. He died of a fever in Mesolonghi, Greece, at the age of 36, as he was trying to assist in that country's efforts to free itself from the Turkish Empire.

Frankly, I am no big fan of Byron, and never have been; nor am I a fan of Shelley. In fact, I have never been much of a fan of the romantic poets. I began my college career as an English major, signed up for the required course on the romantic poets, bought the required books, said to myself, what am I doing here? I don't like these guys, and became a history major. So I must say, O'Brien's book makes brilliantly clear and vivid the utter looniness of Byron's life; and, also, the seeming utter looniness of his friends, family: anybody who had anything to do with him. Her book, in fact, leaves me wondering if the entire continent was off its rocker at the time. But O'Brien remains remarkably non-judgmental throughout; she will allow the reader to reach his or her own conclusions.

Edna O'Brien is a gifted writer with a deft touch and a wonderful way of composing her sentences. And she has put together a breezy, light biography of Byron the man, mostly focusing on his loves and passions.

However, given the earlier comprehensive bios available, I was left at the end wondering what the point of this book exactly was? Is it for Byron fanatics, people with mild Byron interests -- who is the audience?

As much as I enjoyed reading it (and it's a quick read), I would pass unless you are a great fan of Ms. O'Brien.

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