Synopses & Reviews
George Gordon Byron was a superb letter-writer: almost all his letters, whatever the subject or whoever the recipient, are enlivened by his wit, his irony, his honesty, and the sharpness of his observation of people. They provide a vivid self-portrait of the man who, of all his contemporaries, seems to express attitudes and feelings most in tune with the twentieth century. In addition, they offer a mirror of his own time. This first collected edition of all Byron's known letters supersedes Prothero's incomplete edition at the turn of the century. It includes a considerable number of hitherto unpublished letters and the complete text of many that were bowdlerized by former editors for a variety of reasons. Prothero's edition included 1,198 letters. This edition has more than 3,000, over 80 percent of them transcribed entirely from the original manuscripts. Byron's brilliant epistolary saga approaches its end in this last full volume of his letters, from early October 1822 to his fateful departure for Greece in July 1823. During these months he was living in Genoa, with Teresa and her father and brother occupying an apartment in his house. Mary Shelley was staying with the Hunts in a house some distance away. Byron enlarged his circle of English acquaintances, but his liveliest correspondence was still with John Murray, Kinnaird, Hobhouse, and Moore. Of special interest are his frank letters, half flirtatious, to Lady Hardy, those to Trelawny and Mary Shelley, and a growing number to Leigh Hunt and his brother John (publisher of The Liberal and of Byron's poems after his break with Murray), discussing inter alia his thoughts about the continuation of Don Juan. There is irony in Byron's advice for a reconciliation between Webster and his wife Frances, whose matrimonial virtue Byron was proud to have spared in England. And there is pathos in his letters to his half-sister urging her and her children to join him in Italy, unaware that his missives to Augusta and her replies were scrutinized by Lady Byron. From April on, the letters are full of concern for support of the Greek forces and preparations for his departure.
Review
Byron's sinewy, funny, electrifying letters are emergency bulletins from a man operating, more often than not, on the extreme edge of despair and disgrace...We begin to read these letters as speedily as he must have written them, held by his scorn, his dissatisfaction with himself and his blazing energy. He is fiercely alive. -- New York Review of Books
Review
Marchand's new edition of Byron's letters and diaries is a delight to read. -- Times Literary Supplement
Review
Byron is one of the most versatile and provocative of our letter writers. More perhaps than any other, he has left us a collection of writings that constitute a brilliant and incisive portrait of their author. -- Newsweek
Review
One of the great pleasures of life...Byron is the most enjoyable letter-writer in the world. -- Times Literary Supplement
Review
Byron was at all times a performer, and his bestperformance, we have usually agreed, is Don Juan,the most entertaining long poem in English. We may have to think again. Leslie A. Marchand's new edition of the letters and journals suggests Byron's prose may be his strongest work. These letters play on our nerves and get under our skin in a contemporary way. -- Elizabeth Longford
Review
One of the great modern works in progress. -- Walter Clemons - Newsweek
About the Author
The late Leslie A. Marchand was Professor of English, Emeritus, Rutgers University. For his lifelong work on Byron, he was given the National Book Critics Circle's Ivan Sandrof Award.
Table of Contents
- Editorial Note
- Byron Chronology
- Text of the Letters (October 4, 1822–July 31, 1823)
- Appendix
- I. List of Letters and Sources
- II. List of Forgeries of Byron’s Letters
- III. Bibliography for Volume X
- IV. Biographical Sketches for Volume X
- Index of Proper Names