Byron's Letters and Journals, Volume V: 'So late into the night,' 1816-1817

by Lord Byron, Leslie A. Marchand

Overview

George Gordon Byron was a superb letter-writer: almost all his letters, whatever the subject or whoever the recipient, are enlivened by his wit, his irony, his honesty, and the sharpness of his observation of people. They provide a vivid self-portrait of the man who, of all his contemporaries, seems to express attitudes and feelings most in tune with the twentieth century. In addition, they offer a mirror of his own time. This first collected edition of all Byron’s known letters supersedes Prothero’s incomplete edition at the turn of the century. It includes a considerable number of hitherto unpublished letters and the complete text of many that were bowdlerized by former editors for a variety of reasons. Prothero’s edition included 1,198 letters. This edition has more than 3,000, over 80 percent of them transcribed entirely from the original manuscripts.

In the fifth installment of this marvelous serial story, we read about Byron’s separation from his wife. Besides his pleading letters to Annabella asking her to reconsider, there are level-headed letters to Murray and Hobhouse and Hunt and Rogers—all written during the tempestuous time before his final departure from England. The accounts written during the ensuing summer, of Waterloo and the Rhine and Switzerland, reveal new depths of Byron’s maturing mind. But the very best letters here are the ones from Italy: freed from the inhibitions of English society, Byron’s spirit seems to expand and his letters reflect the joie de vivre that, despite his melancholy, was an inherent part of his character.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674089457
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1976
Series:	Byron's Letters and Journals Series
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

The late Leslie A. Marchand was Professor of English, Emeritus, Rutgers University. For his lifelong work on Byron, he was given the National Book Critics Circle's Ivan Sandrof Award.

Table of Contents

• Editorial Note
• Byron Chronology
• Text of the Letters (January 1, 1816–December 31, 1817)
• Journal (September 17, 1816–September 29, 1816)
• Appendix
  • I. List of Letters and Sources
  • II. List of Forgeries of Byron’s Letters
  • III. Bibliography for Volume V
  • IV. Biographical Sketches for Volume V
  
  
  
  
• Index of Proper Names

Editorial Reviews

Irresistible.

The New Yorker

Marchand's new edition of Byron’s letters and diaries is a delight to read.

New York Review of Books

Irresistible.

The New Yorker