Lord George Gordon Byron

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Lord George Gordon Byron

1788 - 1824

Ann Lidovskay andKristina Botieva 11-a





Lord George Gordon Byron wasthe son of Captain John Byron,and Catherine Gordon of Gight, aself-indulgent, somewhathysterical woman, who was hissecond wife.

He was born with a club-foot andbecame extreme sensitivity abouthis lameness

His life did not become easier when he received painfultreatments for his foot by a quackpractitioner in 1799. Eventually hegot a corrective boot.

At home Byron's alcoholicgoverness made sexual advanceswhen he was nine. According tosome sources, Byron was alsoseduced by the lord who rentedhis mansion before he inheritedit.



In his works short and stout Byron glorified proud

heroes, who overcome hardships. The poet himself

was only 5 feet 8 1/2 inches tall and his widely

varying weight ranged from 137 to 202 pounds - heonce said that everything he swallowed was

instantly converted to tallow and deposited on his

ribs.

One of his friends noted that at the age of about 30he looked 40 and "the knuckles of his hands were

lost in fat."



Byron spent his early

childhood years in poor

surroundings in Aberdeen,

where he was educated until

he was ten. fter he inherited the title and

property of his great-uncle in

1798, he went on to Dulwich,

Harrow, where he excelled in

swimming, and Cambridge,

where he piled up depths and

aroused alarm with bisexual

love affairs.



Staying at Newstead in 1802, he probably first met

his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. At the age of fifteen

he fell in love with Mary Chaworth, his distant

cousin, whom he wrote the poem 'To Emma'.



In 1807 appeared Byron's first collection of poetry, HOURS OF IDLENESS. It receivedbad reviews. The poet answered his critics

with satire ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH

REVIEWS

in 1808. Next year he took his seat in the House of Lords, and set out on his grand tour, visitingSpain, Albania, Greece, and the Aegean. In

Malta he stopped for treatments of gonorrhea.



Success came in 1812 whenByron published the first twocantos of CHILDE HAROLD'S

PILGRIMAGE (1812-1818 ). "I awoke one morning and foundmyself famous," he later said.

He became an adoredcharacter of London society,he spoke in the House of Lords effectively on liberal

themes, and had a hectic love-affair with Lady Caroline Lamb.''Mad - bad - and dangerous t o k now ,'' she wrote in her journalon the evening she first sawhim.

But the love of Byron's life wasaccording to Fiona MacCarthy(see Byron: Life and Legend,2002) an impoverishedchoirboy named JohnEdleston.



During the summer of 1813 Byron apparently entered into a more

than brotherly relationship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh, who

was a mother of three daughters. In 1814 Augusta gave birth to

Elizabeth Medora, who was generally supposed to be Byron's.

In the same year he wrote 'Lara,' a poem about a mystical hero,aloof and alien, whose identity is gradually revealed and who

dies after a feud in the arms of his page.

THE CORS AIR (1814), sold 10,000 copies on the

first day of publication



Byron married Anne

Isabella Milbanke in

1815, and their

daughter Ada was bornin the same year. The

marriage was unhappy,

and they obtained legal

separation next year.



When the rumorsstarted to rise of his

incest and debts wereaccumulating, Byronleft England in 1816,

never to return. ''Theonly virtue they honor inEngland is hypocrisy,''he once wrote a friend.

Polidori was only 20;three patients diedunder his care, and hecommitted suicide theage of 26.



Byron had a fever from which he died in

Missolonghi on 19 April 1824.Memorial services were held all over the

land. Byron's body was returned to Englandbut refused by the deans of both Westminster

and St Paul's.Finally Byron's coffin was placed in the family

vault at Hucknall Torkard, near Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire



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Lord George Gordon Byron