Discover the biography of Lord Byron, who incarnating the romantic character par excellence, the terrible 19th-century boy. Hedonistic, defiant of social conventions, courageous, eccentric and, above all, one of the most important poets in our history. Few characters have embodied this spirit so well, between tragic and heroic, that it has made his own life a true legend.
About ten years ago a small treasure arose about George Gordon, known all over the world as Lord Byron: his diaries, these confidences, finally collected and published, offer us very revealing information about the person (not the character). testimony, we found a young man who had little to do with this conqueror famous for his loves.
- He loved his sister.
- However.
- The novels attributed to him with Shelley or Polidori.
- For example.
- Have never been true.
- Byron had an admirable artistic sensibility.
- He had a cynical.
- Insolent and even contradictory personality.
- He was a man who described himself as a mere observer of the world.
- Of a very boring world.
- According to him.
- But in which he lived with absolute passion.
He also claimed that he had no political idea, however, he lost his life fighting for Greece’s independence, deepening his diary and silhouette certainly helps us to go beyond Byron’s classic image disguised as a pirate. , always loving women, in love with scandal and adventure.
Thus, in the words of Anthony Burgess, the world still owes Much thanks to Lord Byron. It is necessary to go beyond legend to understand the impact of his work and thus reveal the man behind the mask.
“The great goal of life is feeling: to feel that one exists, even in pain, right?Which brings us to games, to battle, to travel, to unexpected but felt activities of each kind, whose main attraction is the inseparable. Excitement of its realization?. – Lord Byron to Annabella Milbanke, his future wife, on September 6, 1813-
Byron’s father was a famous captain known as Mad Jack. He was followed by a bad reputation, as did his tendency to spend fortunes. In fact, that’s exactly what happened when she married Lady Catherine Gordon, a Scottish heiress. After George Gordon was born in Scotland, in 1788, the mother and son had no choice but to live in modest neighborhoods in Aberdeen.
Little Byron was born with a deformation on his right foot, which made clear his characteristic of the classic limp, for which he was known, it was not until the age of 10 that he improved his luck, along with that of his mother. title and property of his great-uncle William, the fifth Baron of the Byrons.
From that moment on, his life was 180 degrees. He went to Harrow, one of England’s most prestigious schools, and in 1803 fell in love with one of his cousins. It was Mary Chaworth, an older girl who was already engaged, that rejection and the figure of unreachable love inspired the first poems, which will mature later in every experience, experience and adventure.
In 1805, Lord Byron entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and it was not long before he distinguished himself as one of the brightest and at the same time extravagant students, his verses began to gain notoriety between the university and the student community. his extravagant clothes and even the animal he always wore with him: a monkey also caught his eye.
She learned boxing and fencing, cultivated good friendships and eventually dropped out of school after falling in love with a prostitute. He lived for a time in Picadilly and then returned to his mother’s house, deciding to devote himself to writing poetry. His first published work, was Hours of Odleness, in 1807. This work earned him almost unexpected recognition.
In 1809 Byron entered the House of Lores. A position of responsibility that he took advantage of: he embarked with a friend on a great trip, went to Lisbon, crossed Spain and then spent a few months in Malta and Greece, this adventure would end in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). . An evocative journey, from which Byron gained great artistic inspiration.
On his return from this long journey, young Byron returned home to discover two things: the first was the death of his mother. The second was that his book Childe Harold Pilgrimage had been a success and he had become the most famous figure in England.
In the summer of 1813, much of the company knew Byron’s relationship with his half-sister, Augusta Leight, daughter of his father’s first marriage and the person he had desperately loved all his life. she was married: the bond between them was known to most people.
This burden of conscience appeared in several of his works, such as Le Giaour (1813), The Wife of Abydos (1813), The Corsair (1814) and Lara (1814). He decided to marry Annabella Milbanke. From this relationship was born Augusta Ada, who would later become the famous programmer and mathematician Ada Lovelace.
However, this marriage lasted as little as he was doomed to failure practically from the beginning. Rumors of Lord Byron’s relationship with his sister have never stopped lurking around him, so, after a well-awakened separation, he decided to leave England. He settled in Geneva, with his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Godwin (later Mary Shelley). From these months on, an intense literary and poetic production emerged, which undoubtedly marked these three great authors.
“There are pilgrims of eternity, whose ship always wanders back and forth, without ever anchoring. “- Lord Byron-
After leaving Switzerland, Lord Byron undertook new trips throughout Italy; during this journey, which took place between 1817 and 1821, he took advantage, among other things, to write his greatest poem, Don Juan, satire in the form of picaresque verses.
In it, he reveals other aspects of his little-known character and personality to date: his satirical spirit. It is a daring and comical work that sometimes reveals an absence of delicacy and questions the classic image of the seducer.
However, it was in 1822 that Byron received those who were perhaps the worst blows of his life: first, his five-year-old daughter, Allegra, who had been dropped off at a school near Ravenna, died three months later. His friend Shelley died when the little schooner he was traveling on sank during a boat trip in which they were together. A schooner they called, exactly, Don Juan.
A year after these losses, Lord Byron was appointed a member of the London Committee for the Independence of Greece, a company in which he did not hesitate to commit to fighting for a land he loved, did not fear the struggle and, like any other Greek, appeared with the same passion and pride to liberate him from the Ottoman Empire. There he was received as a hero and wrote his last composition: thirty-six years.
It is said that he himself had predicted his own death months earlier, as he and his guerrillas prepared to attack the Turkish fortress in the Gulf of Corinth, fell ill, we are talking about malaria and also epileptic seizures, however, biographers point out. that the main cause of his death was inadequate medical treatment due to terrible bleeding and resulting sepsis.
The romantic hero par excellence died not before leaving his last written wish: your heart would be in Greece, his body would be sent back to England, kept in a barrel of cognac, and so the legend of the romantic and tragic hero marked our story. .