Customer Reviews

Fantasy, Forgery, and the Byron Legend

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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.

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.

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