Byromania : Portraits of the Artist in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Culture

This collection of essays by leading Byronists explores the development of the myth of Byron and the Byronic from the poet's self-representations to his various appearances in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature and in drama, film and portraiture. Byromania (as Annabella Milbanke named the frenzied reaction to Byron's poetry and personality) looks at the phenomena of Byronism through a variety of critical perspectives, and it is designed to appeal to both an academic and a popular readership alike. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction: Byron, Byronism and Byromaniacs....Pages 1-23 His Grand Show: Byron and the Myth of Mythmaking....Pages 24-42 Conjuring Byron: Byromania, Literary Commodification and the Birth of Celebrity....Pages 43-62 The Life of Bryon, or Southey was Right....Pages 63-76 Silver-Fork Byron and the Image of Regency England....Pages 77-92 Byronic Bioplays....Pages 93-108 Fantasy and Transfiguration: Byron and his Portraits....Pages 109-136 Screening Byron: The Idiosyncrasies of the Film Myth....Pages 137-153 Undead Byron....Pages 154-165 The Loathsome Lord and the Disdainful Dame: Byron, Cartland and the Regency Romance....Pages 166-183 Byronic Confession....Pages 184-194 ‘An Exaggerated Woman’: The Melodramas of Lady Caroline Lamb....Pages 195-220 Back Matter....Pages 221-234 This collection of essays, by leading Byronists, explores the development of the myth of Byron and the Byronic, from the poet's self-representations to his various appearances in nineteenth and twentieth century literature and in drama, film, and portraiture. This book looks at the phenomena of Byronism through a variety of critical perspectives, and is designed to appeal to both an academic and a popular readership alike. The myth of Byron continues today and this collection of essays explores the development of Byronism from the poet's own attempts to construct and control his own image to the representations of Byron and the Byronic in portraiture, nineteenth-and twentieth-century literature, and contemporary film and drama. Byromania is the term coined to describe the frenzied reaction to Byron's works and personality. In Byromania a number of essayists examine the phenomenon through a variety of critical methods