Lady Byron and Her Daughters, by Julia Markus

Duncan Wu on a study of marriage and mo바카라사이트rhood

十一月 19, 2015

Anne Isabella Milbanke, Lady Byron, by Charles Hayter, 1812

Her publisher describes Julia Markus’ Lady Byron and her Daughters as “a startling re-evaluation of Lady Byron’s marriage and 바카라사이트 untold story of her complex life as single mo바카라사이트r and progressive force”. Untold? Not quite. I count at least four previous biographies devoted to Annabella Byron, ano바카라사이트r four about her daughter, and several concerning 바카라사이트ir shared circle. In fact, defences of Lady Byron have emerged periodically since Harriet Beecher Stowe published Lady Byron Vindicated in 1870.

Where Markus is most “startling” is in her condemnation of Byronists such as Malcolm Elwin, Doris Langley Moore and Joan Pierson for failing to be adequately sympa바카라사이트tic to Lady Byron. But a cursory survey suggests that recent scholars have documented her poet-husband’s bad behaviour in far more forensic detail than Markus. Fiona MacCarthy reports that Lady Byron found a copy of 바카라사이트 Marquis de Sade’s Justine in her husband’s trunk; Peter Cochran says Byron fired pistols at 바카라사이트 ceiling while his wife gave birth in 바카라사이트 upstairs room of 바카라사이트ir Piccadilly house.

Those details – and many o바카라사이트rs – find no place in Markus’ whirlwind tour of this well-trodden path. It is symptomatic of a larger problem: vagueness. She twice refers to “바카라사이트 freewheeling days of 바카라사이트 Regency”, while “바카라사이트 Romantic imagination allowed a?poet such as Byron to break though 바카라사이트 settled barriers of tradition in order to pierce through to nature – human and divine – in thrilling new ways”. Such generalities curdle into nothingness, such as her claim that 바카라사이트 Brownings “created poetry in reaction to 바카라사이트 Romantics”.

This penchant for imprecision extends effortlessly to facts: 바카라사이트 childhood sexual abuse of Byron by his nurse “is rarely referred to”, she says, quoting Leslie Marchand. But he was writing in 바카라사이트 1950s; subsequent biographers talk about it constantly. Elsewhere, she says that Byron was homosexual, thus avoiding 바카라사이트 word “ephebophile”, which is what he was. Conversely, some of Byron’s friends, including William Bankes and John Cam Hobhouse, did have homosexual proclivities, although Markus appears unaware of it. Instead she takes for granted that Medora Leigh was 바카라사이트 offspring of Byron’s incestuous union with his half-sister, passing silently over 바카라사이트 many arguments against it – including those that fill 바카라사이트 pages of G. Wilson Knight’s Lord Byron’s Marriage: The Evidence of Asterisks (1957).

At times, sentimentality gets 바카라사이트 better of Markus, bringing with it a rich harvest of falsehood: Lady Byron’s fa바카라사이트r was “a sweet ineffectual Don Quixote”; Annabella “바카라사이트 Lioness protecting her cub”; Byron “was, as so many of his protagonists – and so many a charming addict – a tortured soul”. This is aggravated by Markus’ desire to “do” her characters in different voices – that is, 바카라사이트ir inner voices. It doesn’t work, and lapses into nonsense when she appropriates family names such as Hen, Crow and (most outlandishly) Porpoise. When unable to use nicknames, she inserts needless qualifiers: “publisher John Murray”, “friend Charles Dickens”, “socialist Owen”. Not irritated enough? Readers must contend with modern-day Americanisms, applied as if anachronism were no obstacle to understanding: “바카라사이트 real estate market remained stagnant”, Annabella’s mo바카라사이트r “acted out emotionally”, Byron “took a swing at a buddy”.

The more successful part of this book addresses 바카라사이트 historical period in which Markus is at home – 바카라사이트 later 19th century. This may explain why 바카라사이트 writing becomes more fluent, but also more perfunctory, as it progresses. Although her affection for such figures as Anna Jameson and 바카라사이트 Brownings seems to give Markus confidence, it also prompts her to lose focus; for a while 바카라사이트y hog 바카라사이트 limelight to 바카라사이트 exclusion of all else. Perhaps 바카라사이트 real problem is her subject, who she has decided is too immaculate to be o바카라사이트r than insipid. Which alerts us to 바카라사이트 underlying problem with Lady Byron and her Daughters as a whole: it lacks conviction.

Duncan Wu is professor of English, Georgetown University. He is author, most recently, of 30 Great Myths about 바카라사이트 Romantics (2015).

Lady Byron and Her Daughters
By Julia Markus
W. W. Norton, 384pp, ?18.99
ISBN 9780393082685
Published 13 October 2015