A rounded portrait, venereal scars and all, of one of the prime movers of the Romantic movement ... Stauffer’s book is a splendid thing, colourful and busy with incident, but always thoughtful and astute in its judgments.
Ingenious ... Successive chapters, like vivid lantern slides, illuminate the whole Byronic landscape ... It’s an oft-told story, but this version is sublime ... This devilishly readable book brings Regency England and Napoleonic Europe to howling life and pulls its disgraceful but irresistible subject into dazzling focus.
We hear Byron’s rapid-fire conversational voice on the page ... To each letter, Stauffer then appends an engaging, fact-rich essay, augmented by relevant quotations from Byron’s poetry and insightful comments of his own ... A physically elegant volume, one you’ll enjoy holding as well as reading.
Lively and well-illustrated ... Mr. Stauffer’s approach is, as he concedes, not particularly original... but there is something about Byron’s headlong scamper about the world of his day that lends itself to this miniaturist’s treatment.
Andrew Stauffer’s new book... [presents] 10 letters from transitional periods of Byron’s life alongside lively, accessible commentaries ... Stauffer... communicates enthusiasm for his subject while maintaining a judicious critical distance ... If Stauffer’s compelling discussions of the poetry are sometimes tantalisingly brief, he fully succeeds in showing Byron’s mastery of letter-writing as a literary art in itself.
Stauffer dedicates a fair amount of space to explaining the many references in the letters, but he’s also careful to maintain a lively narrative of Byron’s life, clear about his many flaws but clarifying why he was such a commanding figure.
