 George Gordon Byron simply known as Lord Byron.
He inherited the title Lord Byron from his uncle.
 He was educated in Cambridge at Trinity College.
 He was a leading figure in Romanticism.
 When he was 21, he became a member of the House of Lords.
 His first speech was in defence of Luddites (industrial workers who
destroyed the equipment as a protest against unemployment and low pay).
 His main ideas were expressed in his ‘’Song of The Luddities’’.
 In 1809, he went on two-year-long voyage to Portugal, Spain, Greece and
Turkey.
 He returned home in 1811 and published the first two parts of his major
work ‘‘Child Harold’s Pilgrimage’’ in 1812 in which he described his
journey to foreign lands. Thus, his literary activity began.
 He spent his life collecting sensations and courting controversy.
 Byron was a man of extremes, both in terms of his character and his
deeds. In a candid moment of self-reflection Byron wrote, ‘I am so
changeable, being everything by turns and nothing long, - I am such a
strange mélange of good and evil, that it would be difficult to describe
me’.
 Byron was as famous for his epic romantic poems as he was for his
good looks, humor, and decidedly controversial life. Byron is best
known for creating the literary figure of the Byronic hero.
 Unlike many of his Romantic contemporaries, who were largely concerned
with depictions of common people and the natural world, Byron often chose
exotic locals and extreme states of being as the subjects of his poetry.
 While many English Romantic poets drew upon their own lives and
experiences for their poems, Byron used some of the more harsh aspects of
his life (including his broken marriage, exile from England, and sexual
tendency) in his poetry, without apology.
 While Byron was adored by much of the English reading public, many
literary critics and members of the English ruling elite felt that Byron’s
poems were too radical in terms of his leftist political beliefs, and that he was
immoral and politically dangerous to English society, especially given his
high social position.
 While each of these poems were unique in terms of style and content,
Byron’s poetry always protected on behalf of freedom, independence, selfawareness, romantic passion, and recognition and understanding of the world
beyond the borders of England.
 He died at the age of 36 of dangerous fever in 1824.
 His heart was buried in Greece, because the Greeks considered him as their
national hero.
 His body was brought to England.
His literary activity can be divided into four periods.
1.
The London Period(1812-1816)
This period brought him fame and universal acclaim.
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‘’Child Harold’s Pilgrimage’’ Parts 1 and 2, 1812
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‘’The Corsair’’ 1814
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‘’Lara’’ 1814
2.
The Swiss Period(1816)
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‘’Child Harold’s Pilgrimage’’ Part 3
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‘’Manfred’’
3. The Italian Period(1816-1823)
This period was the most creative one.
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‘’Child Harold’s Pilgrimage’’ part 4
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‘’Don Juan’’
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‘’Cain’’
4.
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The Greek Period(1823-1824)
Several lyric poems
BYRONIC HERO- CHARACTERISTICS
Byronic Hero was first developed by Lord Byron. The pratoganist in
epic poem ‘’Childe Herold’s Pilgrimage’’, ‘Childe Herold’ was
considered as the first literary Byronic Hero.
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Anti-hero, dark side, mysterious, charismatic
Advanced intelligence and perception
Cunning and able to adapt
Self-critical, internal struggle
Seductive, socially and sexually dominant
Arrogant, self-destrustive
Rejection of traditional heroic virtues
19th Century
 Byron’s: Manfred, Childe Harold
 Wuthering Heights: Heatcliff
 Jane Eyre: Mr.Rochester
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