Byron's epistolary saga continues con brio in this volume. At the start of 1818 he sends off the last canto of Childe Harold and abandons himself to the debaucheries of the Carnival in Venice. At the close of 1819 he resolves to return to England but instead follows Teresa Guiccioli to Ravenna. In the meantime he writes three long poems and two cantos of Don Juan, whose bowdlerization he violently protests; he breaks off with Marianna Segati, copes with his amorous "tigress" Margarita Cogni, then falls passionately in love with the young Countess Guiccioli; he thinks seriously of emigrating to South America; he takes custody of his little daughter Allegra and becomes increasingly fond of the child. The Shelleys visit him, as does Thomas Moore, to whom he entrusts his memoirs (burned after his death). The letters to friends are a marvelous outpouring of funny anecdotes, practical talk, discussions of his poems, statements of his beliefs. The love letters are in a class by themselves.
Book Description
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 It includes a considerable number of hitherto unpublished letters and the complete text of many that were bowdlerized by former editors for a variety of reasons.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.
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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.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Smart Cookie. . .,
By Red Nichols "Old & In The Way" (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume VI: 'The flesh is frail', 1818-1819 (Hardcover)
I think it was beat poet Philip Whalen who called Byron a smart cookie after reading an early edition of Mad Bad George Gordon's letters and journals. Bang on, Phil. . . If you consider Byron one of the lesser lights of English poetry, I might not argue (tho Beppo and Don Juan are both a flat-out scream). But his letters and intermittent diary entries place him among the great wits of all time. They are endlessly entertaining and I'll never stop reading these books with enormous pleasure. It's particularly enjoyable to read the endless barbs and shots (and verse parodies) he aims at his publisher, John Murray. These are expensive volumes but they represent outstanding value. Buy 'em all while they're available. . .
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