The Broken Dandy

[...]the 200fh anniversary of his birth has brought forth a burst of books like Andrew Stauffer's recent biography, though Byron may be of interest today more for the rainy summer he spent on the shores of Lake Geneva in a villa near a house rented by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Gay & lesbian review worldwide 2024, Vol.31 (5), p.10-12
Main Author: Holleran, Andrew
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Biographies
Book publishing
Gothic fiction
Novels
Poets
Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)
Short stories
Swimming
Tropical diseases
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Summary:[...]the 200fh anniversary of his birth has brought forth a burst of books like Andrew Stauffer's recent biography, though Byron may be of interest today more for the rainy summer he spent on the shores of Lake Geneva in a villa near a house rented by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Godwin Shelley than for his own work-a summer made famous for Mary writing Frankenstein and Byron' s doctor John Polidori writing the short story "The Vampyre"- two landmarks in the history of Gothic fiction. The or-gies with prostitutes and actresses that he took part in as a young rake were Standard fare for the time, but youthful frivolity gave way eventually to adultery with married women, until Caroline Lamb's vengeful novel about her own obsession with him (along with rumors of sodomy) ruined his reputation in the drawing rooms of London. The love of Byron's life was an Italian countess whose husband allowed Byron to live with them in one of the many villas Byron moved among over the course of his brief life. Byron was always ambivalent and at times tortured by his failure to achieve what Stauffer sees as his desire for a stable family life.
ISSN:1532-1118