Byron in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature

Sandy, Mark

Abstract

This chapter explores how many twentieth- and twenty-first century poets and novelists self-consciously respond to Byron. The first and second sections focus, respectively, on twentieth-century poetic and prose responses to Byron. A darkly existential Byronic selfhood haunts W. B. Yeats’s poetic mythmaking and struggle for transcendence. By contrast, W. H. Auden’s Letter to Lord Byron (1937) celebrates the ingenuity of wit and accompanying mobility of self championed by Byron’s serio-comic poetry. Byronic questions about a self constantly in flux also inform the writings of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner. The chapter’s final section summarizes late twentieth- and twenty-first century novelists’ reimaginings of Byron’s character, life, and legacy. Prompted by Caroline Lamb’s portrayal of Byron in Glenarvon (1816), writers ranging from Tim Powers to John Crawley have found Byron’s biography and literary legacy a source of inspiration for a diverse range of novels across an array of genres.

Citation

Sandy, M. (2024). Byron in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature. In A. Rawes, & J. Shears (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron (516-530). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808800.013.36

• Online Publication Date: Oct 22, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 17, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 516-530
• Series Title: The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron
• Book Title: The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron
• Chapter Number: 34
• ISBN: 9780198808800
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808800.013.36
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2983691