usually referred to simply Lord Byron (Lord Byron)

English romantic poet who captivated the imagination of all Europe with his “gloomy selfishness”

George Byron

short biography

George Noel Gordon Byron, often referred to as Lord Byron, the poet, famous throughout the world for his romantic works, was born in London on January 22, 1788 in the family of an aristocrat who squandered his fortune. When he was little, he ended up in Scotland, in Aberdeen, his mother’s homeland, where she and her son went away from her adventurer husband. Byron was born with a physical disability, limping, and this left an imprint on his entire future life. The difficult, hysterical character of his mother, aggravated by poverty, influenced his formation as a person.

When George was 10 years old, in 1798, their small family returned to England, to the family estate of Newstead, which, along with the title, was inherited from his deceased great-uncle. In 1799, he studied at a private school for two years, but did not study as much as he received treatment and read books. From 1801, he continued his education at Garrow College, where his intellectual baggage was significantly expanded. In 1805 he became a student at Cambridge, but he was attracted no less, or even more, to studying science by other aspects of life, he had fun: he drank and played cards at friendly parties, mastered the art of horse riding, boxing, and swimming. All this required a lot of money, and the young rake’s debts grew like a snowball. Byron never graduated from the university, and his main acquisition at that time was his strong friendship with D.K. Hobhouse, which lasted until his death.

In 1806, Byron's first book, published under someone else's name, “Poems for Various Occasions,” was published. Having added more than a hundred poems to the first collection, a year later he released, this time under his own name, the second - “Leisure Hours”, opinions about which were diametrically opposed. His satirical rebuke to critics, “English Bards and Scottish Reviewers” ​​(1809), received a wide response and became a kind of compensation for the blow to pride.

In June 1809, Byron, along with his faithful Hobhouse, left England - not least because the amount of his debt to creditors was growing catastrophically. He visited Spain, Albania, Greece, Asia Minor, Constantinople - the journey lasted two years. It was during this period that the poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” was begun, the hero of which was largely identified by the public with the author. The publication of this particular work in March 1812 (Byron returned from his trip in July 1811) became a turning point in his biography: the poet woke up famous overnight. The poem became famous throughout Europe and gave birth to a new type of literary hero. Byron was introduced into high society, and he plunged into social life, not without pleasure, although he could not get rid of the feeling of awkwardness due to a physical flaw, hiding it behind arrogance. His creative life was also very eventful: The Giaour (1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813), The Corsair (1813), Jewish Melodies (1814), and Lara (1814) were released.

In January 1815, Byron married Annabella Milbank, in December they had a daughter, but family life did not work out, the couple divorced. The reasons for the divorce were surrounded by rumors that had a bad impact on the poet’s reputation; public opinion was not in his favor. In April 1816, Lord Byron left his homeland never to return there again. He lived in Geneva for the summer, and in the fall he moved to Venice, and his lifestyle there was considered immoral by many. Nevertheless, the poet continued to write a lot (4th canto of Childe Harold, Beppo, Ode to Venice, 1st and 2nd canto of Don Juan).

April 1819 gave him a meeting with Countess Teresa Guiccioli, who was his beloved woman until the end of his life. Circumstances forced them to periodically change their place of residence, including Ravenna, Pisa, Genoa, and go through many events, but Byron was still very active creatively. During this period he wrote, for example, “The Prophecy of Dante”, “The First Song of Morgante Maggiora” - 1820, “Cain”, “Vision of the Last Judgment” (1821), “Sardanapalus” (1821), “The Bronze Age” (1823 ), songs of “Don Juan” and others were written one after another.

Byron, who never knew the limits of his desires, sought to get as much as possible from life, satiated with available benefits, was looking for new adventures and impressions, trying to get rid of deep spiritual melancholy and anxiety. In 1820 he joined the Italian Carbonari movement, in 1821 he unsuccessfully tried to publish the Liberal magazine in England, and in July 1823 he enthusiastically seized the opportunity to go to Greece to participate in the liberation struggle. To help the local population throw off the Ottoman yoke, Byron spared no effort, no money (he sold all his property in England), no talent. In December 1923, he fell ill with a fever, and on April 19, 1824, a debilitating illness put an end to his biography. The poet, whose soul never knew peace, was buried in Newstead, the family estate.

Biography from Wikipedia

Lord Gordon Byron, from 1822 - Noel-Byron, from 1798 - 6th Baron Byron (eng. George Gordon Byron (Noel), 6th Baron Byron; January 22, 1788, London - April 19, 1824, Missolunghi, Ottoman Greece), usually referred to simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet who captured the imagination of all Europe with his “dark selfishness.” Along with Percy Shelley and John Keats, he represents the younger generation of British romantics. His alter ego Childe Harold became the prototype for countless Byronic heroes in the literature of different European countries. The fashion for Byronism continued after Byron's death, even though by the end of his life, in the poetic novel Don Juan and the comic poem Beppo, Byron himself switched to satirical realism based on the legacy of Alexander Pope. The poet took part in the Greek War of Independence, a national hero of Greece.

Name

Gordon- Byron's second personal name, given to him at baptism and coinciding with his mother's maiden name. Byron's father, laying claim to his father-in-law's Scottish possessions, used "Gordon" as the second part of his surname (Byron-Gordon), and George himself was enrolled at school under the same double surname. At the age of 10, after the death of his great-uncle, George became a peer of England and received the title " Baron Byron", after which, as is customary among peers of this rank, his usual everyday name became " Lord Byron" or simply " Byron" Subsequently, Byron's mother-in-law bequeathed property to the poet with the condition that he bear her surname - Noel(Noel), and by royal patent Lord Byron was allowed, as an exception, to bear the surname Noel before his title, which he did, sometimes signing himself “Noel-Byron”. Therefore, in some sources his full name may look like George Gordon Noel Byron, although he never signed with all these names and surnames at the same time.

Origin

His ancestors, natives of Normandy, came to England with William the Conqueror and after the Battle of Hastings were awarded rich estates taken from the Saxons. The original name of the Byrons is Burun. This name is often found in the knightly chronicles of the Middle Ages. One of the descendants of this family, already under Henry II, changed his surname to the surname Byron, in accordance with the reprimand. The Byrons especially rose to prominence under Henry VIII, who, during the abolition of the Catholic monasteries, endowed Sir Byron, nicknamed “Sir John the little with the Great Beard,” with the estates of the wealthy Newstead Abbey in Nottingham County.

Newstead Abbey, destroyed during Tudor secularization - the Byron family seat

During the reign of Elizabeth, the Byron family died out, but the surname passed to the illegitimate son of one of them. Subsequently, during the English Revolution, the Byrons distinguished themselves by their unwavering devotion to the House of Stuart, for which Charles I raised a representative of this family to the rank of peerage with the title of Baron Rochdel. One of the most famous representatives of this family was Admiral John Byron, famous for his extraordinary adventures and wanderings across the Pacific Ocean; the sailors who loved him but considered him unlucky nicknamed him “Foulweather Jack.”

Admiral Byron's eldest son, Captain John Byron (1756-1791), was a reveler and spendthrift. In 1778 he married the former Marchioness of Comartin. She died in 1784, leaving John a daughter, Augusta (later Mrs. Lee), who was later raised by her mother's relatives.

After the death of his first wife, Captain Byron married a second time, according to convenience, to Catherine Gordon (d. 1811), the only heiress of the wealthy George Gordon, Esquire. She came from the famous Scottish family of Gordons, in whose veins flowed the blood of Scottish kings (through Annabella Stewart). From this second marriage, the future poet was born in 1788.

Biography

The poverty into which Byron was born, and from which the title of lord did not relieve him, gave direction to his future career. When he was born (in Hall Street, London, 22 January 1788), his father had already lost the family fortune, and his mother returned from Europe with the remnants of the fortune. Lady Byron settled in Aberdeen, and her “lame boy,” as she called her son, was sent to a private school for a year, then transferred to a classical grammar school. Many stories are told about Byron's childhood antics. The Gray sisters, who nursed little Byron, found that with affection they could do anything with him, but his mother always lost her temper at his disobedience and threw anything at the boy. He often responded to his mother’s outbursts with ridicule, but one day, as he himself says, the knife with which he wanted to stab himself was taken away. He studied poorly at the gymnasium, and Mary Gray, who read psalms and the Bible to him, brought him more benefit than the gymnasium teachers. When George was 10 years old, his great-uncle died, and the boy inherited the title of lord and the Byron family estate - Newstead Abbey. Ten-year-old Byron fell so deeply in love with his cousin Mary Duff that, upon hearing of her engagement, he fell into a hysterical fit. In 1799, he entered Dr. Gleny's school, where he stayed for two years and spent the entire time treating his sore leg, after which he recovered enough to put on boots. During these two years he studied very little, but he read the entire rich library of the doctor. Before leaving for school at Harrow, Byron fell in love again - with another cousin, Marguerite Parker.

In 1801 he went to Harrow; dead languages ​​and antiquity did not attract him at all, but he read all the English classics with great interest and left school with great knowledge. At school, he was famous for his chivalrous attitude towards his comrades and the fact that he always stood up for the younger ones. During the holidays of 1803, he fell in love again, but this time much more seriously than before, with Miss Chaworth, a girl whose father was killed by the “bad Lord Byron.” In the sad moments of his life, he often regretted that she had rejected him.

Youth and the beginning of creativity

At Cambridge University, Byron deepened his scientific knowledge. But he distinguished himself more by the art of swimming, riding, boxing, drinking, playing cards, etc., so the lord constantly needed money and, as a result, “got into debt.” At Harrow, Byron wrote several poems, and in 1807 his first book, Hours of Idleness, appeared in print. This collection of poems decided his fate: having published the collection, Byron became a completely different person. Ruthless criticism of “Leisure Hours” appeared in the Edinburgh Review only a year later, during which the poet wrote a large number of poems. If this criticism had appeared immediately after the book was published, Byron might have completely abandoned poetry. “Six months before the appearance of merciless criticism, I composed 214 pages of a novel, a poem of 380 verses, 660 lines of “Bosworth Field” and many small poems,” he wrote to Miss Fagot, with whose family he was friends. “The poem I have prepared for publication is a satire.” He responded to the Edinburgh Review with this satire. The criticism of the first book terribly upset Byron, but he published his answer - “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers” ​​- only in the spring of 1809. The success of the satire was enormous and was able to satisfy the wounded poet.

First trip

In June 1809, Byron went on a trip. He visited Portugal, Spain, Albania, Greece, Turkey and Asia Minor, where he swam across the Dardanelles, which he was later very proud of. One might assume that the young poet, having won a brilliant victory over his literary enemies, went abroad contented and happy, but this was not so. Byron left England in a terribly depressed state of mind, and returned even more depressed. Many, identifying him with Childe Harold, assumed that abroad, like his hero, he led a too immoderate life, but Byron protested against this both in print and orally, emphasizing that Childe Harold was only a figment of the imagination. Thomas Moore argued in Byron's defense that he was too poor to maintain a harem. Moreover, Byron was worried not only about financial difficulties. At this time he lost his mother, and although he never got along with her, he nevertheless grieved greatly.

"Childe Harold". Glory

On February 27, 1812, Byron made his first speech in the House of Lords, which was a great success: “Is there not enough blood [of rebels] on your criminal code that you need to shed more of it so that it cries to heaven and testifies against you?” "The dark race from the banks of the Ganges will shake your empire of tyrants to its foundations."

Two days after this performance, the first two songs of Childe Harold appeared. The poem was a fabulous success, and 14,000 copies were sold in one day, which immediately placed the author among the first literary celebrities. “After reading Childe Harold,” he says, “no one will want to listen to my prose, just as I myself will not want to.” Why “Childe Harold” was such a success, Byron himself did not know and only said: “One morning I woke up and saw myself famous.”

Childe Harold's journey captivated not only England, but the whole of Europe. The poet touched upon the general struggle of that time, speaks with sympathy about the Spanish peasants, about the heroism of women, and his hot cry for freedom spread far, despite the seemingly cynical tone of the poem. At this difficult moment of general tension, he also recalled the lost greatness of Greece.

Savor

He met Thomas Moore. Until this time, he had never been in great society and now indulged himself with enthusiasm in the whirlwind of social life. One evening, Dallas even caught him in court dress, although Byron did not go to court. In the big world, the lame Byron (his knee was slightly cramped) never felt free and tried to cover up his awkwardness with arrogance.

In March 1813, he published the satire “Waltz” without a signature, and in May he published a story from Turkish life, “The Gyaur,” inspired by his travels through the Levant. The public enthusiastically accepted this story of love and vengeance and greeted with even greater delight the poems “The Bride of Abydos” and “The Corsair”, published in the same year. In 1814, he published “Jewish Melodies,” which had enormous success and was translated many times into all European languages, as well as the poem “Lara” (1814).

In his views on progress and the development of society, Lord Byron was a Luddite. This is evidenced by his first speech, delivered in the House of Lords in February 1812. In it, he defended and largely justified the followers of Ned Ludd.

Marriage, divorce and scandal

In October 1812, Byron proposed to Miss Anna Isabella Milbank, daughter of Ralph Milbank, a wealthy baronet, granddaughter and heiress of Lord Wentworth. “A brilliant match,” Byron wrote to Moore, “although this is not why I made the offer.” He was refused, but Miss Milbank expressed a desire to enter into correspondence with him. In September 1814, Byron repeated his proposal, which was accepted, and in January 1815 they were married. As he confessed to her aunt, his debts and stormy romances made his life so difficult that if Anna (Anabella) refused, he would marry any other woman who would not disgust him. Because of his wife’s passion for mathematics, Byron called her “the princess of parallelograms” and “the mathematical Medea.”

In December 1815, Byron had a daughter named Ada, and the following month Lady Byron left her husband in London and went to her father's estate. While on the road, she wrote her husband an affectionate letter, beginning with the words: “Dear Dick,” and signed: “Yours Poppin.” A few days later, Byron learned from her father that she had decided never to return to him again, and after that Lady Byron herself informed him of this. In April 1816, a formal divorce took place. Byron suspected that his wife separated from him under the influence of her mother. Lady Byron took full responsibility upon herself. Before her departure, she called Dr. Bolly for a consultation and asked him if her husband had gone crazy. Bolly assured her that it was only her imagination. After this, she told her family that she wanted a divorce. The reasons for the divorce were expressed by Lady Byron's mother to Dr. Lashington, and he wrote that these reasons justified the divorce, but at the same time advised the spouses to reconcile. After this, Lady Byron herself visited Dr. Lashington and told him the facts, after which he also no longer found reconciliation possible.

The true reasons for the Byron couple's divorce forever remained mysterious, although Byron said that “they are too simple, and therefore they are not noticed.” The public did not want to explain the divorce by the simple reason that people did not get along in character. Lady Byron refused to tell the reasons for the divorce, and therefore these reasons in the public’s imagination turned into something fantastic, and everyone vied with each other to see the divorce as a crime, one more terrible than the other (there were rumors about the poet’s bisexual orientation and about his incestuous relationship with his half-sister Augusta ). The publication of the poem “Farewell to Lady Byron,” published by one indiscreet friend of the poet, raised a whole pack of ill-wishers against him. But not everyone condemned Byron. One Kurier employee stated in print that if her husband had written such a “Farewell” to her, she would have immediately rushed into his arms. In April 1816, Byron finally said goodbye to England, where public opinion in the person of the “lake poets” was strongly opposed to him.

Life in Switzerland and Italy

Villa Diodati, where Byron, Shelley, his wife Mary and G. Polidori lived in 1816

Before leaving abroad, Byron sold his Newstead estate, and this gave him the opportunity not to be burdened by constant lack of money. Now he could indulge in the solitude he so craved. Abroad, he settled in the Villa Diodati on the Geneva Riviera. Byron spent the summer at the villa, making two small excursions around Switzerland: one with Hobhaus, the other with the poet Shelley. In the third song of Childe Harold (May-June 1816) he describes his trip to the fields of Waterloo. The idea of ​​writing “Manfred” came to him when he saw Jungfrau on his way back to Geneva.

In November 1816, Byron moved to Venice, where, according to his ill-wishers, he led the most depraved life, which, however, did not prevent him from creating a large number of poetic works. In June 1817, the poet wrote the fourth song of “Childe Harold”, in October 1817 - “Beppo”, in July 1818 - “Ode to Venice”, in September 1818 - the first song of “Don Juan”, in October 1818 - “ Mazepa", in December 1818 - the second song of "Don Juan", and in November 1819 - 3-4 songs of "Don Juan".

In April 1819 he met Countess Guiccioli and they fell in love. The Countess was forced to leave with her husband for Ravenna, where Byron followed her. Two years later, the Countess's father and brother, Counts Gamba, involved in a political scandal, had to leave Ravenna together with Countess Guiccioli, who was already divorced at that time. Byron followed them to Pisa, where he continued to live under the same roof with the countess. At this time, Byron was grieving the loss of his friend Shelley, who drowned in the Gulf of Spice. In September 1822, the Tuscan government ordered the Counts of Gamba to leave Pisa, and Byron followed them to Genoa.

Byron lived with the Countess until his departure to Greece and wrote a lot during this time. During this happy period of Byron's life, his following works appeared: “The First Song of Morgante Maggiora” (1820); “The Prophecy of Dante” (1820) and translation of “Francesca da Rimini” (1820), “Marino Faliero” (1820), the fifth canto of “Don Juan” (1820), “Sardanapalus” (1821), “Letters to Bauls” ( 1821), "The Two Foscari" (1821), "Cain" (1821), "Vision of the Last Judgment" (1821), "Heaven and Earth" (1821), "Werner" (1821), sixth, seventh and eighth cantos " Don Juan" (in February 1822); the ninth, tenth and eleventh songs of Don Juan (in August 1822); “The Bronze Age” (1823), “The Island” (1823), the twelfth and thirteenth songs of “Don Juan” (1824).

Trip to Greece and death

A calm family life, however, did not relieve Byron of melancholy and anxiety. He enjoyed all the pleasures and fame he received too greedily. Soon satiety set in. Byron assumed that he had been forgotten in England, and at the end of 1821 he negotiated with Mary Shelley about the joint publication of the English magazine Liberal. However, only three issues were published. However, Byron really began to lose his former popularity. But at this time a Greek uprising broke out. Byron, after preliminary negotiations with the Philhellen committee formed in England to help Greece, decided to go there and began to prepare for his departure with passionate impatience. Using his own funds, he bought an English brig, supplies, weapons and equipped half a thousand soldiers, with whom he sailed to Greece on July 14, 1823. Nothing was ready there, and the leaders of the movement did not get along very well with each other. Meanwhile, costs grew, and Byron ordered the sale of all his property in England, and donated the money to the just cause of the rebel movement. Of great importance in the struggle for Greek freedom was Byron's talent in uniting uncoordinated groups of Greek rebels.

In Missolonghi, Byron fell ill with a fever, continuing to devote all his strength to the fight for the freedom of the country. On January 19, 1824, he wrote to Hancop: “We are preparing for an expedition,” and on January 22, his birthday, he entered Colonel Stanhope’s room, where there were several guests, and said cheerfully: “You reproach me for not writing poems, but I just wrote a poem.” And Byron read: “Today I turned 36 years old.” Byron, who was constantly ill, was very worried about the illness of his daughter Ada. Having received a letter with good news about her recovery, he wanted to go for a walk with Count Gamba. During the walk, it began to rain terribly, and Byron completely fell ill. The poet's last words were fragmentary phrases: "My sister! my child!.. poor Greece!.. I gave her time, fortune, health!.. now I give her my life!”

On April 19, 1824, at the age of 37, George Gordon Byron died. Doctors performed an autopsy, removed the organs and placed them in urns for embalming. They decided to leave the lungs and larynx in the Church of St. Spyridon, but they were soon stolen from there. The body was embalmed and sent to England, where it arrived in July 1824. Byron was buried in the family crypt at Hunkell Torquard Church near Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire.

Pansexuality

The intimate life of Lord Byron caused a lot of gossip among his contemporaries. He left his native country amid rumors about his inappropriately close relationship with his half-sister Augusta. When Countess Guiccioli’s book about Lord Byron appeared in 1860, Mrs. Beecher Stowe came out in defense of the memory of his wife with her “True History of the Life of Lady Byron,” based on the deceased’s story, allegedly conveyed to her in secret, that Byron allegedly was in “criminal relationship” with his sister. However, such stories were fully in keeping with the spirit of the era: for example, they form the main content of Chateaubriand’s autobiographical story “René” (1802).

In 1822, Byron gave his memoirs to Thomas Moore with instructions to publish them after his death. However, a month after his death, Moore, J. Hobhouse and Byron's publisher J. Murray jointly burned the notes due to their brutal honesty and probably at the insistence of Byron's family. This act caused a storm of criticism, although, for example, Pushkin approved of it.

Byron's diaries, published in the 20th century, reveal a truly pansexual picture of sex life. Thus, the poet described the port town of Falmouth as a “lovely place” offering “Plen. and optabil. Coit.” (“numerous and varied sexual intercourse”): “We are surrounded by Hyacinths and other flowers of the most fragrant nature, and I intend to put together an elegant bouquet to compare with the exoticism that we hope to find in Asia. I’ll even take one sample with me.” This model turned out to be the handsome young Robert Rushton, who “was Byron’s page, like Hyacinth was Apollo’s.” In Athens, the poet took a liking to a new favorite - fifteen-year-old Nicolo Giro. Byron described the Turkish baths as “a marble paradise of sherbet and sodomy.”

After Byron's death, the erotic poem "Don Leon", which tells about the same-sex relationships of the lyrical hero, in which Byron was easily guessed, began to diverge in the lists. The publisher William Dugdale spread a rumor that this was an unpublished work by Byron, and, under the threat of publishing the poem, tried to extort money from his relatives. Modern literary scholars call the real author of this “freethinking” work George Colman.

The fate of the family

The poet's widow, Lady Anna Isabella, spent the rest of her long life in solitude, completely forgotten in the big world, doing charity work. Only the news of her death on May 16, 1860 awakened memories of her.

Lord Byron's legitimate daughter Ada married Earl William Lovelace in 1835 and died on November 27, 1852, leaving two sons and a daughter. She is known as a mathematician and creator of the description of Charles Babbage's computer. The algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers on the Analytical Engine, described by Ada in one of his comments to this translation, was recognized as the first program to be reproduced on a computer. For this reason, Ada Lovelace is considered the first computer programmer. The Ada programming language, developed in 1983, is named after her.

Lord Byron's eldest grandson, Noel, was born on May 12, 1836, served briefly in the British Navy and, after a wild and disorderly life, died on October 1, 1862, as a laborer in one of the London docks. The second grandson, Ralph Gordon Noel Milbank, was born on July 2, 1839, and after the death of his brother, who shortly before his death inherited the barony of Wentworth from his grandmother, became the baron of Wentworth.

Nature of creativity and influence

Byron's poems are more autobiographical than the works of other English romantics. He felt more acutely than many others the hopeless discrepancy between romantic ideals and reality. Awareness of this discrepancy did not always plunge him into melancholy and despondency; in his latest works, the removal of masks from people and phenomena evokes nothing but an ironic smile. Unlike most romantics, Byron respected the heritage of English classicism, puns and caustic satire in the spirit of Pope. His favorite octave predisposed him to lyrical digressions and games with the reader.

In Victorian England, Lord Byron was almost forgotten: his popularity could not be compared with the posthumous success of Keats and Shelley. “Who reads Byron these days? Even in England! - Flaubert exclaimed in 1864. In continental Europe, including Russia, the peak of Byronism occurred in the 1820s, but by the middle of the 19th century, the Byronic hero was reduced and became the property of predominantly mass and adventure literature.

Everyone started talking about Byron, and Byronism became a point of insanity for beautiful souls. It was from this time that little great people began to appear among us in crowds with the seal of a curse on their foreheads, with despair in their souls, with disappointment in their hearts, with deep contempt for the “insignificant crowd.” Heroes suddenly became very cheap. Every boy whom the teacher left without lunch for not knowing the lesson consoled himself in grief with phrases about the fate pursuing him and about the inflexibility of his soul, struck but not defeated.

Works

• 1806 - Poems on Various Occasions and Fugitive Pieces
• 1807 - Hours of leisure ( Hours of Idleness)
• 1809 - English Bards and Scottish Columnists ( English Bards and Scotch Reviewers)
• 1813 - Gyaur ( The Giaour, text in Wikisource)
• 1813 - Bride of Abydos
• 1814 - Corsair ( The Corsair)
• 1814 - Lara ( Lara)
• 1815 - Jewish Melodies ( Hebrew Melodies)
• 1816 - Siege of Corinth ( The Siege of Corinth; original text on Wikisource)
• 1816 - Parisina ( Parisina)
• 1816 - Prisoner of Chillon ( The Prisoner of Chillon, original text on Wikisource)
• 1816 - Dream ( The Dream; original text on Wikisource)
• 1816 - Prometheus ( Prometheus; original text on Wikisource)
• 1816 - Darkness ( Darkness, text in Wikisource)
• 1817 - Manfred ( Manfred, original text on Wikisource)
• 1817 - Complaint of Tasso ( The Lament of Tasso)
• 1818 - Beppo ( Beppo, original text on Wikisource)
• 1818 - Childe Harold's Pilgrimage ( Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, original text on Wikisource)
• 1819-1824 - Don Juan ( Don Juan, original text on Wikisource)
• 1819 - Mazepa ( Mazeppa)
• 1819 - Dante's Prophecy ( The Prophecy of Dante)
• 1820 - Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice ( Marino Faliero)
• 1821 - Sardanapal ( Sardanapalus)
• 1821 - Two Foscari ( The Two Foscari)
• 1821 - Cain ( Cain)
• 1821 - Vision of the Court ( The Vision of Judgment)
• 1821 - Heaven and Earth ( Heaven and Earth)
• 1822 - Werner, or Inheritance ( Werner)
• 1822 - Transformed Freak ( The Deformed Transformed)
• 1823 - Bronze Age ( The Age of Bronze)
• 1823 - Island, or Christian and his comrades ( The Island)

Russian translations of the 19th century

Almost all Russian poets, starting from the 20s, translated Byron; but these translations, scattered in magazines and individual publications, remained inaccessible to the Russian reading public. N.V. Gerbel collected and published some of them in 1864-1867. in St. Petersburg there were 5 volumes under the title: “Byron in translation by Russian poets”, and in 1883-1884 the 3rd edition was published, a three-volume set with bibliographical lists at the end of each book and a biography of Byron written by I. Sherr. Byron's poetic works were collected in translation by the best Russian poets: Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Batyushkov, Lermontov, Maikov, Meiya, Fet, Pleshcheev, Shcherbina, Gerbel, P. Weinberg, D. Minaev, Ogarev and many others. Translations not included in Gerbel:

• “The Prisoner of Chillon” - V. Zhukovsky;
• “Gyaur” - M. Kachenovsky (“Bulletin of Europe”, 1821, No. 15, 16 and 17, prose translation);
• N. R. (Moscow, 1822, in verse);
• A. Voeikova (“News Liter.”, 1826, September and October, prose translation);
• E. Michel (St. Petersburg, 1862, prose);
• V. Petrova (original size, St. Petersburg, 1873);
• "Sea Robber"(Corsair) - A. Voeikova (“New lit.”, 1825, Oct. and Nov.; 1826, January, prose);
• V. Olina (St. Petersburg, 1827, prose);
• "Mazepa"- M. Kachenovsky (prose, “Selection from the works of Lord Byron”, 1821);
• A. Voeykova (“News of Literature”, 1824, November, prose);
• J. Grota (“Contemporary”, 1838, vol. IX);
• I. Gognieva (“Repertoire and Pantheon”, 1844, No. 10; reprinted in the “Dramatic Collection”, 1860, book IV);
• D. Mikhailovsky (“Contemporary”, 1858, No. 5);
• "Beppo"- V. Lyubich-Romanovich (“Son of the Fatherland”, 1842, No. 4, free translation);
• D. Minaeva (“Contemporary”, 1863, No. 8);
• "The Bride of Abydos"- M. Kachenovsky (“Bulletin of Hebrews,” 1821, No. 18, 19 and 20, prose);
• I. Kozlov (St. Petersburg, 1826, in poetry, reprinted in his “Poems”);
• M. Politkovsky (Moscow, 1859, alteration);
• "Childe Harold"- the only complete translation was made by D. Minaev (“Russian Word”, 1864, No. 1,3,5 and 10, corrected and supplemented by Gerbel);
• P. A. Kozlova (“Russian Thought”, 1890, No. 1, 2 and 11);
• "Manfred"- full translations: M. Vronchenko (St. Petersburg, 1828);
• O. (“Moskovsky Vestnik”, 1828, No. 7);
• A. Borodin (“Pantheon”, 1841, No. 2);
• E. Zarin (“Bibliography for Reading”, 1858, No. 8);
• D. Minaev (“Russian Word”, 1863, No. 4);
• « Cain» - full translations: D. Minaeva (by Gerbel); Efrem Baryshev (St. Petersburg, 1881); P. A. Kalenova (Moscow, 1883);
• « Heaven and earth" - full translation N.V. Gerbel in his “Pol. collected poems (vol. 1); “ Two Foscari" - E. Zarina (“Bible for Reading”, 1861, No. 11);
• "Sardanapalus"- E. Zarina (“B. for Ch.”, 1860, No. 12);
• O. N. Chyumina (“Artist”, 1890, books 9 and 10);
• "Werner"- Unknown (St. Petersburg, 1829);
• "Don Juan on the Pirate's Island"- D. Mina (“Russian Vestn.”, 1880; department 1881);
• "Don Juan"- V. Lyubich-Romanovich (songs I-X, free translation, 2 volumes, St. Petersburg, 1847);
• D. Minaev (songs 1 - 10, Sovremennik, 1865, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10; his, songs 11 - 16 in Gerbel, vol. II, 1867); P. A. Kozlova (vols. I and II, St. Petersburg, 1889; published in 1888 in Russian Thought);
• translations of Russian poets from Byron are also included in the book by N. Gerbel: “English poets in biographies and samples” (St. Petersburg, 1875).

Biography

George Noel Gordon Byron (1788-1824) was born into a family of English nobleman, at the age of ten he inherited the Byron family title, their estate and a bench in the House of Lords - the aristocratic chamber of the British Parliament. In his youth, he showed an indomitable love of freedom, made accusatory speeches in the House of Lords in defense of the Luddites, supported the fighters for Italian independence, turning his home into the headquarters of the movement. Having completed his education at the famous Cambridge University, the young lord set off on a two-year journey (he visited the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans). With his own funds, Byron armed a detachment of Greek rebels fighting Turkish oppression, bought a ship and set off to defend the independence of Greece. This is where he died.

Creation

In the years before emigration, in addition to oriental poems, Byron created many poems - both full of civil pathos and lyrical. All his poems convey the subtlest movements of the poet’s state of mind. In some of them, significant amounts are explained by the social situation in England and the circumstances of Byron's personal life.

In the poem "Prometheus" (1816), Byron extols the ideal of a heroic individual who is able to challenge the injustices of the world. In the image of Prometheus, Byron highlights such qualities as unbending courage and love of freedom, a proud spirit of disobedience, strong will, sympathy for the fate of one's neighbor, and most importantly, rejection of despotism and tyranny. The poet glorifies the feat of the one who “illuminated the roads for humanity.” The heroism of the tragic image of the titan is that the spirit of rebellion is able to overcome death itself.

The image of Prometheus also has an autobiographical meaning. Byron himself always wanted to see himself as “a man with a heart of marble.”

Separately, it should be noted that the cycle of poems (“Ode to Napoleon”, “Ode from French”, “Napoleon’s Farewell”), dedicated to the famous Emperor of France, became an idol for many young people of that time. In my opinion, it was very significant for Byron that the poet turned to this image in his work after the defeat of Bonaparte.

Both in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” and in other works, the poet was always on the side of the peoples who defended their freedom in the fight against Napoleonic troops. But the defeated Bonaparte aroused the poet’s sympathy, because he became a symbol of the positive changes that the Great French Revolution brought with it. So, the image of the former emperor, in my opinion, personifies the tragedy of an imperfect big deal and at the same time is a premonition of the inevitable changes in which Byron believed.

If we talk about Byron's lyric poems, they are often constructed as heated monologues. The artist vividly depicts the inner world of the lyrical hero, strives to explore the hidden corners of his soul, his feelings. It is precisely by our nature that there are many poems from the cycle “Jewish Melodies”, built on Old Testament motives. One of the striking examples of Byron’s appeal to the motives of “world sorrow” is the poem “My spirit is like the night...”.

Based on the biblical story about the expulsion of an evil spirit from a people, the poet offers his own, purely romantic solution to the conflict. His heroes become a cruel world and the human soul suffers from his image. In Byron, the human soul itself, exhausted by despondency and disappointment, is likened to the demon of sorrow:

Byron poet creativity romantic

I beg you, let me cry,

Therefore, the heart will fall apart from torment,

It endures within itself for a long time,

Already there is a heavy image in him;

No matter how much singing helps, it

From terrible torment it will burst immediately.

Both motives - “worldly sorrow”, and the Promethean spirit of disobedience - became fundamental in Byron’s work. They continue in his famous poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

The work is written in the form of a lyrical travel diary. Many episodes (especially in the first songs) are autobiographical. However, Childe Harold is not a portrait of the author, but a generalized romantic character.

The hero of the poem is a young aristocrat, deeply disappointed in society, from which he leaves for other lands. Childe Harold is overwhelmed by the world's sorrow, as a true romantic should be. However, the reasons for his loneliness are rather vague and too general:

I don't feel sorry for the past

And the sea is not afraid.

Not on my native side

Who does he miss?

One! One! There is water all around,

Water without edges and boundaries...

Nobody mentioned me there,

And I - no one either.

Byron's hero does not seek reconciliation with society, but he is not going to look for ways to transform it. It is interesting that the poet, who favorably perceives the romantic loneliness of his hero as a protest against norms and rules, does not at all recognize Harold’s indifference to the life around him.

It seems to me that this is why the poet himself, through the lyrical hero, often expresses opinions about some events or phenomena, forming a kind of two-voice in the poem - the author and the hero.

The central theme of the poem is the national liberation struggle of European peoples. This is probably why Childe Harold is not a participant in the events described, because the real hero of the first songs of the poem is the enslaved peoples of Spain, Greece, and Albania. He only watches their struggle, but he watches carefully and intently.

And also, together with the author, he is fascinated by the heroic Spanish people and talks about the great past of the once insurmountable, but now humiliated cradle of European culture - Greece. Together with the author, the hero thinks about the quirks of history, tries to understand the reasons for the decline of once great powers.

The author ends the story about various countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy), full of bitterness and at the same time admiration, with a description of the endless sea, which witnesses the endless movement of life.

Byron's work was the most important stage in the history of European culture. The combination in his poetry of sorrow and irony, love of freedom and disappointment in life, glorification of free nature and natural feelings - all this very deeply influenced the development of Western literature of that time.

Byron George Noel Gordon, an English romantic poet, was born on January 22, 1788 in London into the family of an impoverished aristocrat. Byron's mother left her husband, an adventurer and a spendthrift, and, taking her little son, went to her homeland - Scotland. There the boy was brought up in the simplicity of village morals. He began writing poetry very early.

At the age of 10, due to the death of two of his relatives, Byron inherited the title of lord, and his mother moved him to England, to the ancient estate of Byron's grandfather - Newstead. The young man completed his secondary education at the aristocratic Garrow College. At that time, he developed as an amorous personality, unbridled in aspirations and desires, hot-tempered, with heightened pride and an exaggerated sense of honor. Having entered the University of Cambridge, Byron left without completing the course of study.

In 1806, Byron, concealing his authorship, published a collection of youthful poems, Poems for Various Occasions. In 1807, having added 107 more poems to the collection, he published a second book, “Leisure Hours,” under his own name. He received extremely opposite reviews, from enthusiastic praise to crushing criticism, to which he responded with the poem “English Bards and Scottish Reviewers” ​​(1809), where he not only gave a sharp rebuke to the critics, but also re-evaluated almost all classical poetry.

In 1809, Byron went on a journey that lasted two years (Spain, Malta, Greece, Asia Minor, Constantinople). At this time, he began to write the poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” endowing the main character with many of his character traits. In subsequent years, he continued to work on the works of the eastern cycle - the poems “The Giaour”, “The Bride of Abydos” (both in 1813), “Corsair” and “Lara” (both in 1814), “The Siege of Corinth” and “Parisina” (both in 1816 ). The heroes of these works are outcasts who have chosen revenge on their enemies as their goal in life. In 1816 in Switzerland he became a friend of Shelley. During these years he wrote the poem “The Prisoner of Chillon” (1816), the dramatic poem “Manfred” (1817), the atheistic mystery “Cain”, and the satirical poem “The Bronze Age” (1823). Byron endowed his heroes with the same character traits as the previous ones, only with even more pronounced tragedy and contempt for authority and the church.

In 1817-1820 Byron lived in Venice. His poems “Tasso's Complaint” (1817) and “Dante's Prophecy” (1819) are filled with compassion and faith in the liberation of Italy from Austrian rule. For the next four years, Byron lived in Ravenna, Pisa and Venue, where he created many poems and poems, the pearl of which is the novel in verse “Don Juan”, begun back in 1818 in Venice.

In 1820, Byron became an active participant in the Carbonari movement, a secret society in Italy that fought against foreign oppression. In 1823, he went to Greece to help the liberation struggle of the Greeks against the Ottoman yoke, and led scattered partisan detachments. However, Byron's stay in Greece was short-lived: in December 1823, during the siege of the Missalunga fortress, Byron fell ill with a fever and died on April 19, 1824 in a military camp near the walls of the fortress. He was buried in England, on the Newstead family estate.

Problems of the poem

Childe Harold (J. Byron. “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, 1818) is the first romantic hero of Byron’s poetry. This is the embodiment of romantic dissatisfaction with the world and with oneself. Disappointed in friendship and love, pleasure and vice, Childe Harold falls ill with a disease fashionable in those years - satiety and decides to leave his homeland, which became a prison for him, and his father’s house, which seems to him a grave: “a slacker, corrupted by laziness,” “he devoted only to idle entertainment,” “and he was alone in the world.” “In a thirst for new places,” the hero begins to wander around the world.

The poem has two layers: the epic, associated with Childe Harold’s journey, and the lyrical, associated with the author’s thoughts. Childe Harold sometimes diverges from the lyrical hero, sometimes merges with him. At the beginning, the author's attitude towards the hero is almost satirical. \

The poem is written in the form of a kind of lyrical diary of a traveler - a genre that easily accommodates both the lyrical principle (thoughts, experiences of the hero, author's digressions and generalizations, descriptions of pictures of nature), and the epic breadth dictated by the movement itself in time and space. He admires nature, art, people, history, but at the same time, as if unintentionally, he finds himself in the hottest spots of Europe - in Spain, Albania, Greece. Echoes of the political struggle of the beginning of the century burst into the pages of the poem, and it acquires a political and satirical sound.

At the beginning of the poem, Childe Harold, with his loneliness and romantically unconscious melancholy, is detached from the world, and the young author’s attention is entirely focused on understanding the inner world of his restless soul. But gradually the author seems to disconnect from the hero, and rarely even remembers him: he is completely absorbed in the perception of the world that has opened up before him. He transfers all the passion, initially aimed at himself, at personal experiences, to suffering, oppressed, struggling Europe, perceiving everything that happens as his personal suffering. This romantic-personal perception of the world as an integral part of one’s “I” becomes an expression of “world grief.” The poem constantly contains direct appeals to the peoples of countries engulfed in the flames of struggle: “To battle, sons of Spain! To the battle!.. Have you really/Have you forgotten that the one who thirsts for freedom/He himself breaks the chains, thereby boldly setting a goal!”

In the third and fourth songs, youthful enthusiasm, expressiveness, rebellion, and intolerance are replaced by philosophical thoughtfulness, an elegiac-sad statement of the insurmountable disharmony of the world.

The discrepancy between the world and the poet’s ideals is the pain of Byron’s soul, in which the personal and public are inextricably intertwined. “Running from people does not mean hating them.”

Byronism is a protest against the inhumanity of the world, against oppression, lack of freedom and a sense of the highest moral responsibility of man for everything that happens in the world, the conviction that a person is obliged to bear the burden of the pain of the world as his personal human experience.

The moral pathos of the romantics is associated primarily with the affirmation of the value of the individual. A special hero is created, opposed to the crowd. This is a person with strong feelings, rejecting the laws that others obey, lonely, passionate. Sometimes it is an artist who has risen above the crowd, who is given the right to judge the world and people. The subjectivism of the romantics, their emotional attitude to what was depicted determined not only the flowering of lyricism, but also the invasion of the lyrical principle into all genres (the leading genre is the poem). The Romantics were acutely aware of the discrepancy between ideal and reality and longed for their reunion. They defended the right of the human person to freedom and independence.

Romantic heroes are always in conflict with society. They are exiles, wanderers, wanderers. Lonely, disillusioned, challenging unjust social orders. A feeling of tragic incompatibility between ideal and reality, the opposition of nature (as the embodiment of a beautiful and great whole) to the corrupted world of people, individualism (the opposition of man to the crowd).

The “Byronic hero” was early fed up with life, he was overcome by melancholy, he lost touch with the world around him, and a terrible feeling of loneliness became familiar to him. Egocentrism taken to the limit leads to the fact that the hero ceases to experience remorse, committing bad deeds, he always considers himself right. A hero free from society is unhappy, but independence is more valuable to him than peace and happiness. Hypocrisy is alien to him. The only feeling he recognizes is a feeling of great love, growing into an all-consuming passion.

In London (Great Britain), in the family of a bankrupt nobleman, Captain John Byron.

He was brought up in the homeland of his mother Catherine Gordon in Aberdeen (Scotland). After the death of his great-uncle, George Byron inherited the title of baron and the estate of Newstead Abbey, which was located near Nottingham, where Byron moved with his mother. At first, the boy was educated at home, then studied at a private school in Dulwich and Harow. In 1805, Byron entered Trinity College, Cambridge University.

In 1809, Byron left London and went on a long journey. He visited Spain, Albania, Greece, Turkey and Asia Minor.

In 1811, Byron returned to England. At the beginning of 1812, the first two songs of the poem “Child-Harold’s Pilgrimage”, written by him in the East, were published; the third canto was published in 1817, the fourth in 1818, after travels to Switzerland and Italy. The image of Childe Harold embodies the typical features of a new hero who is in irreconcilable conflict with society and morality. The relevance of this image determined the success of the poem, translated into all languages ​​of the world. The name Childe Harold soon became a household word to denote a person who was disappointed in everything, carrying within himself a protest against a reality hostile to him.

Inspired by the success of "Child Harold", the poet continued to work fruitfully, creating from 1812 to 1815 the poems "The Giaour", "The Bride of Abydos", "The Corsair", "Lara" ( Lara).

In 1816, he settled in Switzerland, where he became friends with the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and wrote poems: "The Dream", "Prometheus", "The Prisoner of Chillon", " "The Darkness", the third part of the poem "Childe Harold" and the first acts of "Manfred". In 1818, Byron moved to Venice (Italy), where he created the last act of Manfred, the fourth part of Childe Harold, The Lament of Tasso, Mazeppa, Beppo and the first songs of Don Juan ". In 1818, Byron's estate manager managed to sell Newstead, allowing the poet to pay off his debts. In 1819, Byron wrote The Prophecy of Dante.

In 1820, Byron settled in Ravenna (Italy). During this period, he worked on the historical drama in verse "Marino Faliero", released the satire "The Vision of Judgment", and completed the drama in verse "Cain". In 1821 he moved to Pisa, where he was one of the co-editors of the political magazine Liberal, and here he continued work on Don Giovanni. In 1822, Lord Byron moved to Genoa, where he wrote the drama Werner, the dramatic poem The Deformed Transformed and the poems The Age of Bronze and The Island. In 1823, having equipped a warship at his own expense, the poet sailed to Greece, where a national liberation war against Turkish rule was taking place. He became one of the leaders of the uprising, but fell ill and died of fever in the Greek city of Missolongi on April 19, 1824. Byron was buried in the family crypt at Hunkell Torcard Church near Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire.

Byron was married to Anne Isabella Milbanke, with whom he settled in London. On December 10, 1815, the poet’s daughter, Augusta Ada, was born, but already on January 15, 1816, Lady Byron, taking her daughter with her, went to her parents in Leicestershire, announcing that she would not return to her husband.

Byron's work revealed new sides and possibilities of romanticism as an artistic method. The poet introduced a new hero into literature, enriched genre and poetic forms, the language of lyric poetry, and created a new type of political satire. The enormous influence that Byron had on world literature of the 19th century gave rise to a whole movement in various national literatures, known as Byronism. Byronism was reflected in the works of Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov; in Western Europe, the influence of Byron’s work was felt by Victor Hugo, Heinrich Heine, and Adam Mickiewicz. Byron's poems became the basis for the musical works of Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The poet's tragedies were embodied on the opera stage by Gaetano Donizetti and Giuseppe Verdi. Byron's works inspired a number of paintings by Eugene Delacroix.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

George Byron, whose photo and biography you will find in this article, is deservedly considered great. The years of his life are 1788-1824. The work of George Byron is inextricably linked with the era of romanticism. Note that romanticism arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Western Europe. This direction in art appeared as a result of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment associated with it.

Byron's Romanticism

People who tried to think progressively were dissatisfied with the results of the revolution. Moreover, it has intensified. As a result, the romantics were divided into two opposing camps. Some called on society to return to patriarchal life, to the traditions of the Middle Ages, and to refuse to solve pressing problems. Others advocated continuing the work of the French Revolution. They sought to bring into life the ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity. George Byron joined them. He sharply denounced the colonial policy pursued by the British government. Byron opposed the adoption of anti-people laws and the suppression of freedoms. This caused great dissatisfaction with the authorities.

Life in a foreign land

In 1816, a hostile campaign began against the poet. He had to leave his native England forever. An exile in a foreign land, he actively participated in the struggle of the Greek rebels and the Italian Carbonari for independence. It is known that A.S. Pushkin considered this rebel poet a genius. The Englishman was very popular among the Decembrists. Belinsky, an outstanding Russian critic, also did not ignore him. He spoke of Byron as a poet who made a great contribution to world literature. Want to get to know him better? We invite you to read a detailed biography of Byron.

Origin of Byron

He was born in London on January 22, 1788. His descent was high on both his father's and mother's sides. Both John Byron and Catherine Gordon came from the highest aristocracy. Nevertheless, the future poet spent his childhood in conditions of extreme poverty.

The fact is that John Byron, a guards officer (pictured above), led a very wasteful life. The father of the future poet squandered in a short time two large fortunes, which he inherited from his first wife and from his second, the boy’s mother. John had a daughter, Augusta, from his first marriage. She was raised by her grandmother, and it was only in 1804 that her friendship with her half-brother began.

Early childhood

His parents separated shortly after George's birth. The father went to France and died there. The future poet spent his early childhood in the Scottish city of Aberdeen. Here he studied at the Grammar School. At the end of the third grade, a message came from England that George's great-uncle had died. So Byron inherited the title of lord, as well as Newstead Abbey, a family estate located in Nottingham County.

Both the castle and the estate were in disrepair. There were not enough funds to restore them. Therefore, George Byron's mother decided to rent out Newstead Abbey. She herself and her son settled in Southwell, located nearby.

What darkened Byron's childhood and youth?

Byron's childhood and youth were marred not only by lack of funds. The fact is that George was lame from birth. Doctors came up with various devices to cope with the lameness, but it did not go away. It is known that Byron's mother had an unbalanced character. In the heat of quarrels, she reproached her son for this physical defect, which caused deep suffering to the young man.

Study in Harrow

George entered the boarding school in Harrow in 1801. It was intended for children of noble birth. Future diplomats and politicians were trained here. Robert Peel, who later became the Minister of the Interior and subsequently the Prime Minister of England, studied in the same class with such a great poet as George Gordon Byron. The biography of our hero continues with events in his personal life.

First love

At the age of 15, in 1803, Byron fell in love with Mary Chaworth. This happened during the holidays. The girl was 2 years older than George. They spent a lot of time together. However, this friendship was not destined to end in marriage. For many years, love for Mary tormented the romantic soul of such a poet as Byron George Gordon. The short biography moves on to describe George's student years.

Student years

The young man became a student at Cambridge University in 1805. The period of study there was a time of mischief, pleasure and fun. In addition, George was fond of sports. He was involved in boxing, swimming, fencing, and horse riding. Subsequently, George Byron became one of the best swimmers in England. Interesting facts about him, aren't they? At the same time, he became interested in reading. Soon, many began to notice that Byron was able to memorize whole pages of text.

First collections of poems

"British Bards", George Byron

The short biography also introduces readers to the difficulties that the poet had to face throughout his life. In particular, an anonymous review appeared in the Edinburgh Review magazine in 1808. In it, an unknown person mercilessly ridiculed Byron's works. He wrote that he did not speak the language of fiction and advised him to study poetry and not publish clumsy poems. George Byron responded to this by publishing the poem "The British Bards" in 1809. The success of the work was enormous. The poem went through four editions.

The Two Year Journey Taken by George Byron

His brief biography is marked by a two-year journey on which Byron set off at the end of 1809. At this time he completed his poem entitled “In the Footsteps of Horace”, and also created poetic travel notes. The journey greatly influenced the development of Byron's creativity and poetic gift. His journey began in Portugal, after which George visited the island of Malta, Spain, Albania, Greece, and Constantinople. In the summer of 1811, Byron returned to England. Here he learned that his mother was seriously ill. However, George failed to catch her alive.

"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"

George retired to Newstead and began working on his new poem, which he called Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. However, when the work was completed, editor Murray put forward a demand to exclude stanzas of a political nature from the poem. George Byron, whose biography testifies to his love of freedom, refused to remake the work.

In the image of Childe Harold, Byron embodied the features of a new hero who is in irreconcilable conflict with morality and society. The relevance of this image ensured the success of the poem. It has been translated into almost all languages ​​of the world. Soon the name Childe Harold became a household name. It means a person who is disappointed in everything and who protests against a reality that is hostile to him.

Activities in the House of Lords

He decided to defend his position not only in poetry. George Byron soon took the place that the poet inherited. In England at this time, the Luddite movement became very popular, which consisted of a protest by weavers against the emerging weaving machines. The fact is that labor automation has left many of them unemployed. And those who managed to get it saw their wages drop significantly. People saw the root of evil and began to destroy them.

The government decided to pass a law according to which those who destroyed cars were to be sentenced to death. Byron made a speech in parliament protesting against such an inhumane bill. George said that the state is called upon to protect the interests of citizens, and not of a few monopolists. However, despite his protests, the law was passed in February 1812.

After this, terror began in the country against weavers, who were sentenced to death, exiled, and imprisoned. Byron did not stand aside from these events and published his angry ode, in which the authors of the law were denounced. What did George Byron write during these years? A whole series of romantic poems came from his pen. Let's talk briefly about them.

"Eastern Poems"

George Byron wrote a series of romantic poems starting in 1813. In 1813, The Giaour and The Bride of Abydos appeared, in 1814 - Lara and Corsair, in 1816 - The Siege of Corinth. In literature they are usually called “Oriental poems”.

Failed marriage

The English poet George Byron married Annabella Milbank in January 1815. This girl came from an aristocratic background. Byron's wife opposed his social activities, which clearly contradicted the government's course. As a result of this, quarrels arose in the family.

The couple had a daughter in December 1815, who was named Ada Augusta. And already in January 1816, his wife left Byron without explanation. Her parents immediately initiated the divorce proceedings. Byron at this time created several works dedicated to Napoleon, in which he expressed the opinion that, by waging war against Bonaparte, England brought a lot of grief to its people.

Byron leaves England

Divorce, as well as “wrong” political views, led to persecution of the poet. The newspapers inflated the scandal to such an extent that Byron could not even just go outside. He left his homeland on April 26, 1816 and never returned to England. The last poem written in his native land was “Stanzas to Augusta,” dedicated to Byron, who was a support for him all this time and supported the creative spirit in George.

Swiss period

At first, Byron intended to live in France, and then in Italy. However, the French authorities forbade him to stop in cities, allowing him only to travel around the country. So George went to Switzerland. He settled near Lake Geneva at the Villa Diodati. In Switzerland he met and became friends with Shelley. The period of residence in this country was from May to October 1816. At this time, the poems “Darkness”, “Dream”, “The Prisoner of Chillon” were created. In addition, Byron began writing another poem, "Manfred", and also created a third song, "Childe Harold". After this he went to Venice.

Getting to know Guiccioli, participating in the Carbonari movement

Here he met Countess Guiccioli, with whom Byron fell in love. The woman was married, but she reciprocated the poet’s feelings. Nevertheless, the Countess soon left for Ravenna with her husband.

The poet decided to follow his beloved to Ravenna. This happened in 1819. Here he actively participated in the Carbonari movement, which in 1821 began preparations for the uprising. However, it did not start because some members of the organization turned out to be traitors.

Moving to Pisa

In 1821 George Gordon moved to Pisa. Here he lived with Countess Guiccioli, who was already divorced by that time. Shelley also lived in this city, but in the fall of 1822 he drowned. Byron from 1821 to 1823 created the following works: “Marino Faliero”, “Sardanapalus”, “Two Foscari”, “Heaven and Earth”, “Cain”, “Werner”. In addition, he started his drama called "Transformed Freak", which remained unfinished.

Byron created the famous Don Juan between 1818 and 1823. This great creation, however, also remained unfinished. George interrupted his work in order to participate in the struggle for the independence of the Greek people.

Participation in the struggle for independence of the Greek people

Byron moved to Genoa in the fall of 1822, after which he left for Missolonghi (in December 1823). However, in Greece, as well as among the Italian Carbonari, there was a lack of unity among the rebels. Byron spent a lot of energy trying to rally the rebels. George did a lot of organizational work trying to create a unified rebel army. The life of the poet was very tense at that time. Besides, he caught a cold. Byron wrote a poem on his 36th birthday called “Today I Turned 36.”

Death of Byron

He was very worried about the illness of Ada, his daughter. Soon, however, Byron received a letter saying that she had recovered. George happily mounted his horse and went for a walk. However, a heavy downpour began, which became fatal for the cold poet. George Byron's life was cut short on April 19, 1824.

Byron had a great influence on world literature of the 19th century. There was even a whole movement known as “Byronism”, which was reflected in the works of Lermontov and Pushkin. As for Western Europe, the influence of this poet was felt by Heinrich Heine, Victor Hugo, and Adam Mickiewicz. In addition, Byron's poems formed the basis for the musical works of Robert Schumann and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. To this day, the influence of such a poet as George Byron is felt in literature. His biography and work are of interest to many researchers.