Byron’s Women

In this captivating biographical history, Larman (Restoration: The Year of the Great Fire) investigates nine women entangled with the brooding, handsome Romantic poet George Gordon, Lord Byron. Noted for his words and notorious for his behavior, Byron loved many, both men and women. The author begins with the poet’s mother, Catherine, who was married and widowed young by Byron’s profligate, gambling father. He then profiles several of Byron’s lovers, including Claire Clairmont, Teresa Guiccioli, Caroline Lamb, and Mary Shelley, as well as Byron’s daughters, Ada Lovelace, by his wife, Annabella (whom he raped upon marrying), and Elizabeth Medora Leigh, infamously by his half-sister Augusta. Larman chose to focus on these women, he tells the reader, in part because they had to deal with one another, and those dealings elicited both allegiance and enmity. Each is a fascinating figure deserving of her own biography; Ada, for instance, became a pioneer in the early development of computers and in the sciences. Caroline Lamb called Byron, “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” and reading these pages brings home this truth. Yet learning about Byron’s milieu causes the reader to wonder how he could have been otherwise. Larman has created a well-researched, fascinating look at Byron’s life and times. (Apr.)