Lord Byron Brief Biography
English Poet, Leading Figure in 19th Century English Romanticism
Dec 10, 2008
Lord Byron was a leading poet of the 19th-century English Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Don Juan remained incomplete on his death.
His daughter, Ada Lovelace, notable in her own right, collaborated with Charles Babbage on the analytical engine, predecessor to modern computers.
Early Life of Lord Byron
Byron was born George Gordon Noel Byron in London on January 22, 1788. He was the son of Captain John "Mad jack" Byron and his second wife, the former Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
When he was three, his father died, after spending his mother's fortune so Byron and his mother experienced difficulties. But at the age 10, he inherited the family title, a great uncle's title and estates. He attended the prestigious Harrow School and Cambridge University.
The Poet and Early Poems
His first published poems, Hours of Idleness, appeared when he was 19, but it was not well accepted. Two years later, he followed it with English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, a satirical piece that attacked the major literary figures of the time. It was also this time that he began a two-year grand tour of southern Europe to Turkey, that lead to his inspired long poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
Controversial Life
Lord Byron's fame rests not only in his writings but also in his life, which featured extravagant living, numerous love affairs, and allegations of incest and sodomy. At 26, he married Annabella Milbanke, but she soon left him, shocked by finding out of his affair with his half-sister Augusta Byron Leigh. This scandal made Byron leave England for Italy.
He had new love conquests in Italy as well, but this time he wrote his witty poem, Don Juan, about a man's adventures with women. Don Juan is considered his masterpiece.
Support on Italian and Greek Freedom
Byron began his strong support on Italian and Greek freedom from foreign control. He served as a regional leader of Italy's revolutionary organization the Carbonari in its struggle against Austria. He later traveled to fight against the Turks in the Greek War of Independence, for which the Greeks consider him a national hero. He died from fever in Missolonghi on April 19, 1824
Legacy
Byron wrote prolifically. In 1833 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 17 octavo volumes. His magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since Milton's Paradise Lost.
The Byronic hero pervades much of Byron's work. Scholars have traced the literary history of the Byronic hero from Milton, and many authors, composers and artists show Byron's influence during the 19th century and beyond. Today, many international Byron Societies exist, reflecting fascination for his work.
Sources:
Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, by Ian Ousby, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993
Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 2002
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. New York: Larousse, 1994
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