Although known primarily for his poetry, Lord Byron (1788-1824) also had a keen interest in the theatre and wrote a number of verse dramas, mostly during his Italian exile. While these plays went largely unnoticed during Byron's lifetime, they have since been recognized by critics for their sublime poetic and dramatic qualities. This collection brings together six of Byron's finest plays: Manfred, Cain, Heaven and Earth, Marino Faliero, Sardanapalus, and The Two Foscari.

Don Juan is Lord Byron's satirical masterpiece. It was based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses portraying Juan not as a womanizer but as a man easily seduced by women. It is a variation on the epic form. Byron himself called it Epic Satire. Modern critics consider it Byron's masterpiece. When the first two cantos were published anonymously in 1819, the poem was criticized for its immoral content by the critics of the day despite its immense popularity.

Don Juan is a satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses, portraying Juan not as a womanizer but as someone easily seduced by women. It is a variation on the epic form. Byron himself called it an "Epic Satire" (Don Juan, c. xv, v. 790). Modern critics generally consider it Byron's masterpiece, with a total of over sixteen thousand individual lines of verse. Byron completed 16 cantos, leaving an unfinished 17th canto before his death in 1824. Byron claimed he had no ideas in his mind as to what would happen in subsequent cantos as he wrote his work. When...

George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale (1788 1824) is one of the central writers of British Romanticism and his 'Byronic' hero the charming, dashing, rebellious outsider remains a literary archetype. But to what extent is this character a portrayal of the author himself? Byron was known for his extremely unconventional, eccentric character and his extravagant and flamboyant lifestyle: he had numerous scandalous love affairs, including a suspiciously close relationship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh. Lady Caroline Lamb, one of his lovers, famously described him as 'mad, bad...

Was Lord Byron "mad, bad and dangerous to know" as Lady Caroline Lamb averred? Does the popular picture of him bear scrutiny? The best way to find out is to hear from the man himself. Byron's works were enormously varied; their portent changed as his life moved from the uncomfortable ease of Britain to the stimulating exile of Europe, and Italy in particular. It is in his personal writings that we are able to tie together all of his disparities, both of work and personal reputation, into a unified whole. These 284 letters and letter-excerpts vividly portray a magnificently independent man of...