The Gothic Byron

Byron is the hero of the Romantic movement. He was also, this book contends, steeped in Gothic traditions. Cochran, an expert on Byron and the editor of several works on the poet, begins and ends this collection. He gives examples of the influence of Gothic writers such as Radcliffe on Byron's work and the ways in which Byron inverted the form. Essays by others discuss Byron's ambivalence toward and fascination with Catholicism, his obsession with images of death, the Gothic in specific works, especially Don Juan and his influence on later authors in Spain and Germany as well as the Brontes in England. The true story of the "White Lady" of Newstead is a Gothic exemplum. She had a monomania for Byron that led her to live in a town he wrote about to write poetry to him before her tragic death in 1825. The collection is a convincing argument for Byron's Gothic roots. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)