he experienced his first sexual encounters with males and

Lord females. In 1803, Byron fell deeply in love with his distant
cousin, Mary Chaworth, and this unrequited passion found

Byron Biography.com expression in several poems, including "Hills of Annesley" and

"The Adieu."
Playwright, Poet(1788–1824)
QUOTES
From 1805 to 1808, Byron attended Trinity College
“Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure.” intermittently, engaged in many sexual escapades and fell
—Lord Byron deep into debt. During this time, he found diversion from
Synopsis school and partying with boxing, horse riding and gambling. In
June 1807, he formed an enduring friendship with John Cam
Born in 1788, Lord Byron was one of the leading figures of the Hobhouse and was initiated into liberal politics, joining the
Romantic Movement in early 19th century England. The Cambridge Whig Club.
notoriety of his sexual escapades is surpassed only by the
beauty and brilliance of his writings. After leading an
Early Travel and Writing
unconventional lifestyle and producing a massive amount of
emotion-stirring literary works, Byron died at a young age in
Greece pursuing romantic adventures of heroism. After receiving a scathing review of his first volume of
poetry, Hours of Idleness, in 1808, Byron retaliated with the
satirical poem "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." The
Early Life poem attacked the literary community with wit and satire, and
gained him his first literary recognition. Upon turning 21, Byron
Born George Gordon Byron (he later added "Noel" to his took his seat in the House of Lords. A year later, with John
name) on January 22, 1788, Lord Byron was the sixth Baron Hobhouse, he embarked on a grand tour through the
Byron of a rapidly fading aristocratic family. A clubfoot from Mediterranean and Aegean seas, visiting Portugal, Spain,
birth left him self-conscious most of his life. As a boy, young Malta, Albania, Greece and Turkey. It was during his journey,
George endured a father who abandoned him, a schizophrenic filled with inspiration, he began writing "Childe Harold's
mother and a nurse who abused him. As a result he lacked Pilgrimage," a poem of a young man's reflections on travel in
discipline and a sense of moderation, traits he held on to his foreign lands.
entire life.
In July 1811, Byron returned to London after the death of his
In 1798, at age 10, George inherited the title of his great-uncle, mother, and in spite of all her failings, her passing plunged him
William Byron, and was officially recognized as Lord Byron. into a deep mourning. High praise by London society pulled
Two years later, he attended Harrow School in London, where him out of his doldrums, as did a series of love affairs, first with
the passionate and eccentric Lady Caroline Lamb, who In October 1816, Byron and John Hobhouse sailed for Italy.
described Byron as "mad, bad and dangerous to know," and Along the way he continued his lustful ways with several
then with Lady Oxford, who encouraged Byron's radicalism. women and portrayed these experiences in his greatest poem,
Then, in the summer of 1813, Byron apparently entered into "Don Juan." The poem was a witty and satirical change from
an intimate relationship with his half sister, Augusta, now the melancholy of "Childe Harold" and revealed other sides of
married. The tumult and guilt he experienced as a result of Byron's personality. He would go on to write 16 cantos before
these love affairs were reflected in a series of dark and his death and leave the poem unfinished.
repentant poems, "The Giaour," "The Bride of Abydos" and
"The Corsair."
By 1818, Byron's life of debauchery had aged him well beyond
his 30 years. He then met 19-year-old Teresa Guiccioli, a
In September 1814, seeking to escape the pressures of his married countess. The pair were immediately attracted to each
amorous entanglements, Byron proposed to the educated and other and carried on an unconsummated relationship until she
intellectual Anne Isabella Milbanke (also known as Annabella separated from her husband. Byron soon won the admiration
Milbanke). They married in January 1815, and in December of of Teresa's father, who had him initiated into the secret
that year, their daughter, Augusta Ada, better known as Ada Carbonari society dedicated to freeing Italy from Austrian rule.
Lovelace, was born. However, by January the ill-fated union Between 1821 and 1822, Byron edited the society's short-lived
crumbled, and Annabella left Byron amid his drinking, newspaper, The Liberal.
increased debt, and rumors of his relations with his half sister
and of his bisexuality. He never saw his wife or daughter
again. Last Heroic Adventure

In 1823, a restless Byron accepted an invitation to support

Exile Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Byron spent
4,000 pounds of his own money to refit the Greek naval fleet
In April 1816, Byron left England, never to return. He traveled and took personal command of a Greek unit of elite fighters.
to Geneva, Switzerland, befriending Percy Bysshe Shelley, his On February 15, 1824, he fell ill. Doctors bled him, which
wife Mary and her stepsister, Claire Clairmont. While in weakened his condition further and likely gave him an
Geneva, Byron wrote the third canto to "Childe Harold," infection.
depicting his travels from Belgium up the Rhine to Switzerland.
On a trip to the Bernese Oberland, Byron was inspired to write
the Faustian poetic-drama Manfred. By the end of that Byron died on April 19, 1824, at age 36. He was deeply
summer the Shelleys departed for England, where Claire gave mourned in England and became a hero in Greece. His body
birth to Byron's daughter Allegra in January 1817. was brought back to England, but the clergy refused to bury
him at Westminster Abbey, as was the custom for individuals
of great stature. Instead, he was buried in the family vault near
Newstead. In 1969, a memorial to Byron was finally placed on
the floor of Westminster Abbey.
The Romantic Era emphasis on the examination of human personality
and its moods and mental potentialities.
By the late 18th century in France and Germany,
literary taste began to turn from classical and The Romantic Style 
neoclassical conventions. The generation of revolution The term romantic first appeared in 18th-century
and wars, of stress and upheaval had produced doubts English and originally meant "romancelike"-that is,
on the security of the age of reason. Doubts and resembling the fanciful character of medieval
pessimism now challenged the hope and optimism of romances. But a mood or movement whose central
the 18th century. Men felt a deepened concern for the characteristic is revolt, and whose stress is on self-
metaphysical problems of existence, death, and expression and individual uniqueness, does not lend
eternity. It was in this setting that Romanticism was itself to precise definition. Among the characteristic
born. attitudes of Romanticism were the following:

Origins  Libertarianism 
Romanticism was a literary movement that swept Many of the libertarian and abolitionist movements of
through virtually every country of Europe, the United the late 18th and early 19th centuries were
States, and Latin America that lasted from about 1750 engendered by the romantic philosophy-the desire to
to 1870. However, the Romantic Movement did not be free of convention and tyranny, and the new
reach France until the1820's. Romanticism's essential emphasis on the rights and dignity of the individual.
spirit was one of revolt against an established order of Just as the insistence on rational, formal, and
things-against precise rules, laws, dogmas, and conventional subject matter that had typified
formulas that characterized Classicism in general and neoclassicism was reversed, the authoritarian regimes
late18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. It praised that had encouraged and sustained neoclassicism in
imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and the arts were inevitably subjected to popular
intuition over science-making way for a vast body of revolutions. The general romantic's dissatisfaction with
literature of great sensibility and passion. In their the organization of society was often channeled into
choice of heroes, also, the romantic writers replaced specific criticism of the Bougeois society and the
the static universal types of classical 18th-century feeling of oppression was frequently expressed in
literature with more complex, idiosyncratic characters. poetry. Political and social causes became dominant
They became preoccupied with the genius, the hero, themes in romantic poetry and prose throughout
and the exceptional figure in general, and a focus on France and other parts of Europe, producing many vital
his passions and inner struggles and there was an human documents that are still pertinent.
Romanticism stresses on self-expression and of rural dwellers was a popular literary theme. Often
individual uniqueness that does not lend itself to combined with this feeling for rural life is a generalized
precise definition. Romantics believed that men and romantic melancholy, a sense that change is imminent
women ought to be guided by warm emotions rather and that a way of life is being threatened.
than the cold abstract rules and rituals established by
Bourgeois society. The bourgeois, who promoted, The Lure of the Exotic 
defended, and openly profited by the Revolution of In the spirit of their new freedom, romantic writers in all
1830, brought with them, when they rose to power, cultures expanded their imaginary horizons spatially
certain social customs. No doubt all the Romantics and chronologically. They turned back to the Middle
would have furiously denied that they were bourgeois, Ages (12th century to 15th century) for themes and
and many of them would indignantly have repudiated settings and had an obsessive interest in folk culture,
Napoleon III, rather than declare allegience to whom national and ethnic cultural origins. They found
Victor Hugo went into exile for 18 years. In the period delight notions of romantic love, mystery and
of its most active fermentation, the Romantic superstition, and placed an emphasis upon imagination
Movement was nothing more than a protest against as a gateway to transcendent experience and spiritual
bourgeois conventions, bourgeois society and morality. truth.
To be extreme and flamboyant and unusual and violent
even at the risk of becoming grotesque was the desire The Decline of Romanticism
of every young Romantic. The Romantics were, in fact, By about the middle of the 19th century, romanticism
bourgeois origins, who were trying hard to escape from began to give way to new literary movements: the
their own shadows. Parnassians and the symbolist movement in poetry,
and realism and naturalism.

Nature 
The Romantic association of nature and spirit
expressed itself in one of two ways. The landscape
was, on one hand regarded as an extension of the
human personality, capable of sympathy with man's
emotional state. On other hand, nature was regarded
as a vehicle for spirit just as man; the breath of God
fills both man and the earth. (Shroder, 80). Delight in
unspoiled scenery and in the (presumably) innocent life