Byron, George (2)

Byron was born in London in 1788. His father was a nobleman who descend from the Normans, and so his family was an important family in England. Byron was very close with his mother so he was influenced by his governess.
He was a peer and everyone who was a peer had the right to have a sit in the House of Lords. He studied in Cambridge and when he was there he published some poems as “Hours of idleness” that was very attacked by the critics.

Byron replied with “English bards and scotch reviewers”. This was his first satirical poem in which he attacked the critics.
When he took his sit in the House of Lords he decided to going abroad in the Grand Tour (a long trip, usually around Europe) and he visited Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Albania, Turkey. In Greece he understand what was the situation there: in that period Greece was under the domination of Spain. Then he went back to England and he was introduced in the elegant society in London. But he had an incestuous love affair with his half-sister. This created the idea of a man tormented by melancholy. Disgusted by the hypocrisy of English society he decided to leave England forever and he spent the rest of his life abroad. He first went to Switzerland because Shelley lived there with his wife. Then he moved to Italy: he went to Ravenna, Pisa, and Genova.
Then he left Italy and went to Greece. He died there taken by marsh fever.
Furthermore personality. He wanted to be individual, he wanted to distinguished himself from the others.
During his life he wrote a lot: he wrote a play for the theatre “Manfred” but he also wrote some satirical poems which the most famous is “Don Juan” that is considered by modern critics, his most successful work. In this poem Byron attacked the false responsibility. He wrote also some narrative poems as “Lara”, “The corsair” and an autobiographical poem that is “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” . this work talks about an aristocratic Harold that is Byron himself. This poems was misunderstood by English people, so Byron decided to exile himself from his country. This poem is divided into 4 cantos: the last is about Italy (he talks about the Italian towns).