George Gordon, Lord Byron
(1788–1824)

In his life as well as in his work, George Gordon, Lord Byron, typified the Romanticist's zest for life. As much a public figure as a literary genius, Byron lived life "in the fast lane"—a point that was looked upon with disapproval by his contemporaries.

Whether distasteful behavior is purely a matter of example is open to debate. Nevertheless, it is significant to note that Byron was born in London to a father whose good looks—which his son inherited—made him irresistible to women. The father, John Byron, died when his son was three. When the young Byron was ten, the death of a great-uncle brought him the title of Baron, along with an estate in Newstead. Here the boy and his mother went to live until, at 17, Byron left home to attend Trinity College in Cambridge. At college, Byron made many friends, played many sports, and spent much money. He also published his first book of poems, Hours of Idleness (1807), which received harsh criticism from the Edinburgh Review. He was hurt but not crushed by this attack on his work, and two years later he came out with English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, a poem poking fun at the magazine.

That same year, Byron journeyed to the Near East, and spent the next two years traveling. When he returned home, he brought with him two sections of a book-length poem titled Childe Harold, which depicted a young hero not unlike himself—moody, reckless, sensitive, and adventuresome. The work was received with great enthusiasm, and Byron became a very popular figure in important English circles. So great was his popularity, in fact, that his next published work, The Consair, sold 10,000 copies in one day.

During this period Byron saw a great many women. In 1815 he married Ann Isabella Milbanke, with whom he had a daughter. The couple seemed mismatched from the start and, after about a year, separated. Hurt by nasty gossip, Byron left England, never to return. It was in Italy that he began work on his most ambitious opus, Don Juan (pronounced "JOO-en"), a mock epic of a Romantic hero.

It was also at this point that tragedy struck, and then struck again—first with the death of his daughter, later with that of his friend, the poet Shelley. In 1823, Byron joined the group of revolutionaries seeking to free Greece from Turkish rule. Before the revolt got underway, however, Byron died of rheumatic fever, at the age of 36.

Although Byron openly spurned the works of the other Romantics, including Wordsworth and Coleridge, his independence was a hallmark of the Romantic movement.

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