The selected poems of a legendary romantic.
Described as 'Mad, bad and dangerous to know' by one of his lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, Lord Byron was the quintessential Romantic. Flamboyant, charismatic and brilliant, he remains almost as notorious for his life - as a political revolutionary, sexual adventurer and traveller - as he does for his literary work. Yet he produced some of the most daring and exuberant poetry of the Romantic age, from 'To Caroline' and 'To Woman' to the satirical English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, his exotic Eastern tales and the colourful narrative of...

This book is a collection of thirteen essays, some previously unpublished, on Byron and Wordsworth. Drawing on psychoanalysis, textual criticism, and historical scholarship, Manning explores the territory jointly mapped by the works that compel our attention and the theories by which we explain our engagement. Juxtaposing Byron and Wordsworth, Manning examines the situation of literature in the Romantic period and the interaction between the idea of originality the Romantics fostered and the means of production through which they expressed themselves.