Product Description

'I mean to show things really as they are, not as they ought to be'. wrote Byron (1788-1824) in his comic masterpiece Don Juan, which follows the adventures of the hero across the Europe and near East which Byron knew so well, touching on the major political, cultural and social concerns of the day. This selection includes all of that poem, and selections from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and the satirical poems English Bards and Scotch Reviewers and A Vision of Judgement. Paul Wright's detailed introductions place Byron's colourful life and work within their broader social and political contexts, and demonstrate that Byron both fostered and critiqued the notorious 'Byronic myth' of heroic adventure, political action and sexual scandal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19055 in Books
• Published on: 1994-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 816 pages

Customer Reviews

My review is against this version, rather than Byron himself
This is quite a disappointing version of Byron's works, it does contain "Don Juan", but it only contains extracts from "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" which is the better book and true source of the Byronic hero, i would suggest a different collection of his works as this does not do him justice, i would suggest Lord Byron: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) as a better collection.

Great edition, great selection.
I'm also reviewing the edition, and not the author himself: that's a job for the literary critics.
Formally, this edition has many good features: the font size is just right, not too common in cheap editions for 800-page tomes; the notes are very helpful; and succint introductions are supplied.
It doesn't get 5 starts for a minor flaw in the content. A very good surprise was that it contains the whole of Don Juan, arguably Byron's masterpiece. However, I can't disguise my disappointment at not finding two of Byron's most famous short poems, "So we'll go no more a-roving" and the superb "She walks in beauty".
Overall, a fairly good edition. Byron is a must in any library, and this book fills the gap in the Romantic period shelf neatly.

Byron the Hero
Byron is, by definition, a puzzle of a poet. He adores baiting and testing the reader with his piquant mixture of gossip, gravitas and grace. The poet is capable of ascending into 'high' poetry, and amusing himself with the crudest of jibes at the expense of his esteemed Romantic peers. 'Don Juan' is the perfect example of this tendency in the poetry, and Byron's melancholic reputation is revealed to be a part of this theatrical poet's act. His technical mastery is difficult to better, and his sense of play allows him to subvert the epic in an almost revolutionary style, provoking even modern critics into a frenzy of disagreement as to his true achievement. Joyce and Dostoevsky are his true inheritors.