Lord Byron
Don Juan — the archetype of the Romantic poet
The most famous poet in Europe in his lifetime and the very embodiment of the Romantic hero — glamorous, rebellious, scandalous. His Childe Harold made him an overnight celebrity ('I awoke one morning and found myself famous'), and the brooding, defiant 'Byronic hero' he created reshaped European literature from Pushkin to the Brontes. His comic masterpiece Don Juan turned satire into epic. He died at Missolonghi, having gone to fight for Greek independence.
Key works
- Don Juan1819— His unfinished comic epic — wit, satire, and digressionPoem
- Childe Harold's Pilgrimage1812— The poem that made him famous overnightPoem
- Manfred1817— A guilt-haunted Alpine drama of the Byronic heroDramatic poem