Fantasy, Forgery, and the Byron Legend [Hardcover]

James Soderholm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 1995

" Byron was -- to echo Wordsworth -- half-perceived and half-created. He would have affirmed Jean Baudrillard's observation that "to seduce is to die to reality and reconstitute oneself as illusion." But among the readers he seduced, in person and in poetry, were women possessed of vivid imaginations who collaborated with him in fashioning his legend. Accused of "treating women harshly," Byron acknowledged: "It may be so -- but I have been their martyr. My whole life has been sacrificed to them and by them." Those whom he spell bound often returned the favor in their own writings tried to remake his public image to reflect their own. Through writings both well known and generally unknown, James Soderholm examines the poet's relationship with five women: Elizabeth Pigot, Caroline Lamb, Annabella Milbanke, Teresa Guiccioli, and Marguerite Blessington. These women participated in Byron's life and literary career and the manipulation of images that is the Byron legend. Soderholm argues against the sentimental depictions of biographers who would preserve Byron's romantic aura by diminishing the contributions of these women to his social, sexual, and literary identity. By restoring the contexts in which literary works charm or bedevil particular readers, the author shows the consequences of Byron's poetic seductions during and after his life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Soderholm is a nimblefooted writer whose characterizations have punch." -- European Romantic Review

"Soderholm has taken the extra time and effort to give us this economical, well-researched, clever, and convincing study of Byron's serious relationships with literate and literary women." -- European Romantic Review

"A study that will clearly make a solid contribution to biographical theory, Byron scholarship, and scholarship on the women writers related to him." -- Rocky Mountain Review

"A delightful book: lucidly written, eloquently expressed, and scholarly without being in the least instance turgid or pretentious.... An exemplary book that ushers in a fresh and invigorating critical approach to Byron" -- The Byron Journal

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (November 9, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813119391
• ISBN-13: 978-0813119397
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,519,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The lost art of literary criticism, May 3, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fantasy, Forgery, and the Byron Legend (Hardcover)

I hope you'll allow me to glow a bit about my former instructor. Soderholm singlehandedly turned me from a gaping pre-law undergrad to a lover of literature, for which I'll be ever thankful. As to the merits of his first published work, I must add my sincere praise. Soderholm's sleek skull fascinates as it parades on the page. Especially entertaining--and, I would hastily add, quite in keeping with the dynamics of his lecture style--is the extended etymology in the first chapter: of the relationships between "glamour" and "grammar" and the spells that have been woven throughout our culture of them--right up to the present day. Soderholm is a first-rate mind, hardened in the crucible of UVa's graduate English program, and finely sharpened on the anvil of endless conversations with his students and colleagues. I am stronger for having known him, and studied under him, and I enjoyed very much this romp through the tawdry legend of Byron.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars needs to use less hairspray, October 23, 2007

By 

Polly Amory (Bethesda, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fantasy, Forgery, and the Byron Legend (Hardcover)

I am still awaiting the fivespot this hack said he'd send in exchange for a good review. But by now it's been so long since this book came out that I can't remember what lip service he asked me to pay.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best authority on Byron, March 28, 2004

By 

Dr. Madness (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fantasy, Forgery, and the Byron Legend (Hardcover)

James Soderholm is clearly the best authority on Byron in the world. His writing style is very fine, and he is an original thinker.