Byron the Maker. Liberty, Poetry & Love.
Part 1: Byron in England.
Part 2: Byron in Exile

By Anne Fleming
December 2009
Book Guild
Distributed by Trans Atlantic Publications
ISBN: 9781846243394
598 pages, Illustrated
$42.50 Hardcover

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A wide-ranging and distinctive biography … a valuable synthesis of the best early and modern authorities on Byron.’ Professor Vincent Newey Anne Fleming’s Byron the Maker has been hailed as ‘an original biography of Byron – no mean feat so late in the day’ (Editor, The Byron Journal). Each of the many previous biographies has produced its own theories, often presented as fact, and none has allowed Byron to speak for himself at any length – until now.

This complete two-part biography – combining Byron in England with Byron in Exile - makes much greater use of the Letters and Journals and is, in consequence, a lively and piquant work, for Byron’s letters are among the most entertaining, poignant and revealing in the language. It presents evidence from reliable witnesses only and illuminates his development as a poet, both in England and ‘in exile’ abroad, with copious extracts from his poetry which alone should inspire the reader to ransack the works of this remarkable man.

Although his efforts to help the Italian dissidents win their freedom failed and it might be concluded that he was equally ineffectual in his efforts to assist the Greeks in their War of Independence, Byron went to Greece to serve the Greek people, not a classical ideal, and when he died, tragically and needlessly, at Mesolonghi he took his place among the pantheon of Greek heroes. Here, at last, in Byron the Maker, one of the world’s most original literary figures is allowed to tell his own story.

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