Larman - Byrons Women

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One was the mother who bore him; three were women who adored him; one was the sister he slept with; one was his abused and sodomized wife; one was his legitimate daughter; one was the fruit of his incest; another was his friend Shelley's wife, who avoided his bed and invented science fiction instead.

Nine women; one poet named George Gordon, Lord Byron mad, bad and very very dangerous to know. The most flamboyant of the Romantics, he wrote literary bestsellers, he was a satirist of genius, he embodied the Romantic love of liberty (the Greeks revere him as a national hero), he was the prototype of the modern celebrity and he treated women (and these women in particular) abominably. In Byron's Women , Alex Larman tells their extraordinary, moving and often shocking stories. In so doing, he creates a scurrilous anti-biography of one of Englands greatest poets, whose life he views to deeply unflattering effect through the prism of the nine damaged womens lives.

For my own women, Nancy and Rose,
who would have shunned Byron

Alas, the love of women! It is known
To be a lovely and a fearful thing

B YRON , D ON J UAN

in order of appearance

Part I

George Gordon, Lord Byron, a poet and lover of women

Catherine Gordon, his mother, weighed down by troubles

John Jack Byron, his father, a man unencumbered

Augusta Leigh, Jacks daughter and Byrons much-loved half-sister

John Hanson, a lawyer, much put-upon

May Gray, a nurse of unusually affectionate character

Mary Ann Chaworth, Byrons cousin: a first love

Lord Carlisle, Byrons guardian, no friend to Catherine

Dr Glennie, Byrons first headmaster

Margaret Parker, another cousin, and muse

Lord Grey de Ruthyn, tenant of Newstead, friend to both mother and son

Dr Drury, Byrons Harrow headmaster

Henry Drury, his son and Byrons housemaster, a frustrated man

Elizabeth Pigot, a friend and neighbour of Byrons

John Edleston, a choirboy, and lover of Byrons

John Cam Hobhouse, a writer and intimate friend of Byrons: a rogue

Scrope Davies, another friend of Byrons: a dandy

Robert Rushton, Byrons page, a great help to his master

John Murray, Byrons publisher, a canny man

Part II

Lady Caroline Lamb, a woman given to giddiness of spirit

Lady Harriet Spencer , her mother, a legendary beauty, dancer and socialite

Lord Ponsonby, her father, a less happy figure

Lady Margaret Spencer, her much-beloved grandmother

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , her aunt, a woman of repute

Charles Fox, Foreign Secretary and legendary orator: lover of life high and low

Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, Harriets inamorata

Lady Harriet Harryo Cavendish, Carolines cousin and confidante

William Lamb, Carolines husband, a long-suffering man

The Prince of Wales, later George IV, Englands finest

Lady Melbourne, Williams mother, and trusted friend to Byron

George Augustus Frederick Lamb, Caroline and Williams son, beset by fits

Sir Godfrey Webster, a soldier and familiar of Carolines: unblessed with brains

Lady Holland, his mother and society hostess, no admirer of Caroline

Lady Morgan, writer and friend of Carolines

Samuel Rogers, art collector, writer and gossip

Douglas Kinnaird, banker, politician and confidante of Byrons

Robert Dallas, a friend of Byrons

Thomas Moore, friend and subsequent biographer of Byrons

Thomas Medwin, poet and friend of both Byron and Shelleys

Annabella Milbanke, intellectual and correspondent of Byrons: later his unhappy wife

Lady Jane Harley, an amusement of Byrons

Part III

Ralph Milbanke, Annabellas father, somewhat advanced in years

Judith Milbanke, her mother, ambitious for her daughter

Mrs Clermont, her redoubtable governess

George Leigh, Augustas husband, a soldier: of little use domestically

Elizabeth Medora Leigh, Augustas daughter, believed to be Byrons

Ada Lovelace, Annabella and Byrons daughter, destined for greatness

Stephen Lushington, Annabellas capable solicitor

Part IV

Claire Clairmont, Byrons mistress, one hardened by experience

Mary Clairmont, her forthright mother

William Godwin, her stepfather: novelist and political philosopher

Mary Shelley , his daughter by the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft: prone to dreams

Fanny Imlay, his stepdaughter

Percy Bysshe Shelley, a poet and adventurer

Harriet Shelley , his first wife, all but unacknowledged

Eliza Westbrook, her sister

John William Polidori, a doctor, and would-be writer

William Shelley, Shelley and Marys son

Matthew Monk Lewis, an author of Gothic tales

Clara Shelley, Mary and Shelleys daughter

Allegra Byron, natural daughter of Claire and Byron

Richard Hoppner, English consul-general in Venice

Percy Florence Shelley, Mary and Shelleys second son

Part V

Teresa Guiccioli, Byrons last attachment, and aware of that fact

Count Ruggero Gamba, her father, of liberal political thinking

Count Alessandro Guiccioli, her husband: a much-married man

Countess Maria Benzoni, the means of introducing Byron and Teresa

Fanny Silvestrini, Teresas former governess: a great help

Lega Zambelli, Byrons secretary and consigliere

Count Giuseppe Alborghetti, Secretary-General of Ravenna

Pietro Gamba, Teresas brother, given to revolutionary ideas

Hippolito Gamba, Teresas younger brother, of fiery temperament

Marchese Cavalli, Teresas uncle

Edward John Trelawny, sailor and adventurer

Lady Marguerite Blessington, novelist and hostess

Leigh Hunt, critic and essayist

Marianne Hunt, his wife

Paolo Costa, Teresas literary tutor and mentor

Ignazio Guiccoli, Guiccolis unimpressed son

Part VI

Theresa Villiers, a confidante of Annabella, and former friend of Augusta

Charles Babbage, a mathematician and engineer, blessed with ideas

Mary Somerville, mentor to Ada, scientist and mathematician

William King, Adas husband, later Earl of Lovelace

Woronzow Greig, Kings friend

Byron King-Noel, King and Adas eldest son

Annabella King-Noel, their daughter

Ralph King-Milbanke, their youngest son

Augustus de Morgan, logician and instructor to Ada

Georgiana Leigh, Medoras sister

Henry Trevanion, her husband: a wicked fellow

Marie Leigh, Medoras daughter by Trevanion

M. Carrel, Medoras doctor and guardian

Natalie Beaurepaire, Medoras maid, and Annabellas spy; given to snobbery

Victor Beaurepaire, her husband, of similar mind

Captain Joseph Barrallier, a rare friend of Medoras

John Crosse, an acquaintance of Adas, and aficionado of the turf

Jean-Louis Taillefer, Medoras admirer, later husband

Jean-Louis Elie Taillefer, Medora and Taillefers son

In October 1819 Lord Byron wrote to his banker and literary agent Douglas Kinnaird from Italy to reflect on the fortunes of the first two cantos of Don Juan . Though published anonymously, the mixture of social and literary satire and unapologetic sexual content had, as with most things Byronic, led to scandal. Few were unaware of the identity of the author, although sales had been slower than those of his autobiographical poem Childe Harolds Pilgrimage , published to ecstatic reception in 1812. The character of Don Juan, in particular, seemed to have overtones of his creator, and it was these that Byron reflected on to Kinnaird: