Lord Byron Bibliography

Biographies

Eisler, Benita. Byron, Child of Passion, Fool of Fame.
New York: Alfred Knopf, 1999. Now available in a paperback edition: Vintage books, (May, 2000, $18.00). This is the latest, best biography of Byron in print. It is 837 fascinating pages about one of the most brilliant figures of the 19th Century. Once you start reading this wonderful book you will not stop till you reach page 837 so warn your friends and family when you begin that you will be living with Byron for a week or so.

Grosskurth, Phyllis. Byron The Flawed Angel.
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. This biography that preceded the Eisler biography by two years and received respectful reviews, has now been superseded by the superior Eisler book.

Marchand, Leslie A. Byron, A Biography.
New York: Alfred Knopf, 1957. The Marchand 3-volume biography of Byron has been the most respected scholarly work on the life of Byron for half a century. Eisler has new material, but Marchand will always be read. It is out of print now but I found it through an out-of-print online service with no trouble.

A Special Book About Byron

The Last Attachment: The Story of Byron & Teresa Guiccioli
by Iris Origo. $16.95 Paperback - 320 pages (May 1, 2000)
ISBN: 1885586507 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.44 x 8.84 x 4.86

This is a very special book about Byron written by a special woman. Iris Origo (Marchesa Origo) was part British and part American and part Italian by adoption. She grew up in America but spent long periods in Italy living in a magnificent Renaissance villa on the hill above Florence in the ancient Etruscan hilltop town of Fiesole, where her somewhat crazy and very wealthy mother presided over an international circle of poets and artists. Here Iris came to know the extraordinary world of early-twentieth-century Italy. She fell in love first with Italy and then with an Italian: the nobleman Marchese Origo. The Marchesa Origo lived the rest of her life as a country lady transforming the agricultural world on her husband's huge Tuscan farm. And while she was not busy with the farm, she wrote books. Good books. And one of her best is this story of the love affair between Byron and Teresa Guiccioli. It is a great story and a very good way to come to understand Byron's Italian years. If you are interested in Byron you should order this book since there is no way to know how long it will stay in print and this is a gorgeous soft-cover edition. This classic study of Byron was first published in 1949, and its reissue in this beautiful soft-cover edition is a major literary event. If you become a devotee of Origo's writing you can turn to her other wonderful books. Especially beautiful is her own story:

Images & Shadows : Part of a Life   (Nonpareil Book)
by Iris Origo $15.95. Paperback (October 15, 1999) David R Godine; ISBN: 1567921035.

Here is commentary about Origo and her autobiography from Kirkus Reviews: "Without any intention 'to convert, to reveal, or to confess,' accomplished biographer Origo (The Merchant of Prato, etc.) records her unique memories, first published in England in 1970, of a privileged, intellectual, cosmopolitan life early in this century. Born into an international family, Origo spent her childhood years between her paternal grandparents' estate in Westbrook, Long Island, her maternal grandparents' home in Great Britain, and her mother's villa in Fiesole. Although her father died early, he made sure his daughter grew up devoid of limiting national identity and open to different cultural influences. Her mother instilled a passion for travel and books. While grateful to her family for the comfort and care they provided, Origo portrays certain aspects of her upbringing with restrained criticism. Her proper British mother, for instance, insisted on Origo's private education by a governess and tutors, opposed her desire to enroll in university, and committed her to a tasteless, nauseatingly ``healthy'' diet. In hindsight, Origo considers her period of ``coming out'' into high society a considerable waste of time. Readers, however, will appreciate her colorful accounts of balls and theater visits as a glimpse of elite diversions in bygone days. Origo's descriptions of early 20th-century American magnates and patrons of the arts and her detailed reconstruction of Italian landowners' traditional life are among many other engaging passages. Sketching her own character in an irreproachably modest tone, she commands respect for her ability to apply her superb education, knowledge of the world, and financial means to worthy causes. She helped modernize devastated farmland in Tuscany, volunteered in the Red Cross during WWII, and sheltered orphaned children at her home after the war. This active, creative attitude arises out of Origo's profound sense of being ``singularly fortunate,'' despite some personal tragedies, a rare and therefore doubly appealing trait. Along with its exquisite style and thought-provoking digressions on the philosophy of writing, this autobiography documents fascinating experiences of the modern European and American aristocracy. (16 pages b&w photos)

Letters

Marchand, Leslie A., ed. Lord Byron, Selected Letters and Journals. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982. Paperback edition is available from Harvard at $12.95. If you want to know Byron there is no better way to do it than to read the letters. As the New Yorker said: "Byron's letters are among the most spirited in the English language, and are irresistible." Marchand devoted his academic career to Byron and edited the magnificent 12-volume Harvard-Murray definitive edition of Byron's letters. This one-volume selection is the best introduction you could have to the excitement of reading Byron's own thoughts in his letters.

Byron's Daughter Ada Augusta

Woolley, Benjamin. The Bride of Science. New York: McGraw-Hill, originally published in London in 1999, and now we have this paperback edition from McGraw-Hill. ($16.95).
When both Byron and his wife Annabella were gone, their daughter Ada Augusta carried their extraordinary story forward, both as the child of fame and as a brilliant mathematician famous in her own field of mathematics for whom an early computer code was named: Ada. Known in her day as the "Enchantress of Numbers," Ada Lovelace was a fascinating woman and Woolley's biography is absolutely magnificent. "A splendid and enthralling portrait," said the Sunday Times when it was published in 1999. And now with this quality paperback edition you will want to run and get it.

Annabella and Augusta

One of the most fascinating relationships in the whole Byron story is the drama of wife Annabella and sister Augusta. When Byron was gone, the two women remained behind with the memories and the shared love of this extraordiary man – the two women who had known him best. Since they both lived in the exact same social world, they were inevitably thrown together with a continuing relationship that endured for a quarter-century after Byron's death. There is a new book on Annabella and Augusta called, The Kindness of Sisters: Annabella Milbanke and the Destruction of the Byrons, by David Crane (Knopf, 290 pages, $26.95). It is an extraordinary story driven by Annabella's inplacable hatred for this one man she had loved so passionately. Her anger and revenge against Byron is directed at Augusta. It is a story that resembles some wild Greek drama in which the Medea-like heroine lashes out at all who shared the love of the hero Lord Byron.

Lady Caroline Lamb

Now we have a new biography of Lady Caroline Lamb, who shared with Byron one of the most tempestuous and scandalous affairs of Georgian England.

Paul Douglas, Lady Caroline Lamb: A Biography
Palgrave Macmillan: New York, October 2004.
ISBN 1403966052