Byron letters and prose

Press, 3 November 1984, Page 22

Byron letters and prose

Lord Byron — Selected Letters and Journals. Edited with notes by Peter Gunn (1972). Penguin, 1984. 432 pp. $16.95 (paperback). To understand a great deal about Byron, or for that matter about his poetry, it is necessary to read a fair selection of his prose and in particular, his letters. This selection of his prose writing, reprinted after 12 years, opens with a letter written when he was nearly 11 years old, and closes with a letter to his banker written 10 days before his death at Missolonghi. It gives a lively appreciation of his life and work. The book is well organised, beginning with a general biographical introduction. It is then divided into six parts chronologically, each part being prefaced with more detailed biographical information so that what follows can be more easily understood and placed in context.

Perhaps what marks the letters in particular, is Byron’s descriptive facility which brings to them a remarkable realism and immediacy. They are also emotionally very frank — his bitterness over his estrangement from his wife is quite visible as is his pleasure on hearing of.Romilly’s suicide. Apart from the letters (which occupy most of the book) there are passages from his journal and other prose writing including his maiden speech in the House of Lords — a plea for moderation and compassion for those convicted of frame breaking, the penalties for which were most severe. There is literary criticism demonstrating Byron’s early appreciation of Wordsworth, and lack of appreciation of Keats whose poetry he described as a “Bedlam vision” and “a sort of mental masturbation.” — S. Erber.