The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron offers the latest in critical thinking about the poet that defined the Romantic era across Europe and beyond. The volume presents forty-four groundbreaking essays that enable listeners to assess Lord Byron's central position in Romantic traditions and his profound and far-reaching influence on British, European, and world culture.
The chapters are organized into five sections—"Works," "Biographical Contexts," "Literary and Cultural Contexts", "Afterlives," and "Reading Byron Now"—that guide listeners through the most important issues and frameworks for interpreting Byron. "Works" presents original readings of Byron's key works and many of his lesser-known ones, giving space to extensive studies of his great epic, Don Juan, and the poem that brought him fame, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. "Biographical Contexts" invites listeners to consider Byron's life through key themes and patterns. "Literary and Cultural Contexts" sets out the most important intellectual traditions from which Byron's work emerged and in which it developed. "Afterlives" shows listeners the extent of Byron's influence on literature, art, music, and politics in Europe and beyond. "Reading Byron Now" advances the critical agendas that are shaping Byron studies today.