Sign-In
Cart
Fantasy, Forgery and Byron Legend
Hardcover
Literary CriticismGeneral Poetry
ISBN13: 9780813119397
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: Nov 9 1995
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.94
Height: 0.86 Width: 5.82 Depth: 8.81
Language: English
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.
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Lao Tzu
Paperback
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover
Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath's Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback