"This is the best short introduction to Byron available. Stauffer steers us through a tumultuous life with poise and expert authority. The letters provide vivid snapshots of Byron at key moments across three decades and the biography that emerges is deeply absorbing"--

Love affairs, literary rivalries, and the supernatural collide in an inspired journey to Lake Geneva, where Byron, the Shelleys, and John Polidori come together to create literature's greatest monsters.

Provides in-depth analysis of the life, works, career, and critical importance of Lord Byron.

Provides analysis of the most frequently studied poems in literature courses. Contains author biography (if attributed), poem text, poem summary, themes, style, historical context, critical overview, and criticism.

"One was the mother who bore him; three were women who adored him; one was the sister he slept with; one was his abused and sodomized wife; one was his legitimate daughter; one was the fruit of his incest; another was his friend Shelley's wife, who avoided his bed and invented science fiction instead. Nine women; one poet named George Gordon, Lord Byron - mad, bad and very very dangerous to know. The most flamboyant of the Romantics, he wrote literary...