About this Resource
Fictions of Byron: An Annotated Bibliography
by G. Todd Davis
About this Resource
Byronism, defined here as the production and reproduction of the Byron legend, incorporates, but also extends well beyond, Lord Byron the historical personage. This mythologizing has been effected by authors, critics, reviewers, and others who have found it necessary to read, mediate, or converse with the Byron myth. Byronism pervades not only the nineteenth but the twentieth century as well. Its mythologies have been altered, expanded, and diminished by authors who continue to produce and reproduce the Byron legend. Byron becomes an effect of this perpetual manipulation of the Byronic figure.
Relying on historical and intertextual perspectives, this resource focuses not only on nineteenth-century but also on twentieth-century texts. Rather than concentrating on biographies, reviews, or critical works to delineate a historical evolution, it centers on those works that fictionally represent Byron. The author has used this resource to locate intertextual connections of such tropes as the Byronic vampire and the Byronic ghost. Other tropes could easily be gleaned from the list: the rebel, the libertine, the philosopher, or the queer, to name only a few. To be honest, the author never imagined when he set out on this search, that he would find over one hundred works that in some way feature Byron as a fictional character.
This annotated bibliography, presented in chronological order, references works specifically about Lord Byron, while also citing secondary characters such as Lady Caroline Lamb, Lady Byron, Percy and Mary Shelley, and others.
G. Todd Davis, an assistant professor at Kentucky State University, specializes in Nineteenth-century British Literature and Critical Theory, with specific subfields in The Gothic and Queer Theory. He has a passion for, some would say an obsession with, Lord Byron—the one person with whom the author would like to have dinner, if time travel were ever possible. The author gratefully acknowledges the editors of Romantic Circles and Melissa J. Sites and David Brookshire, who provided numerous emendations and incredibly detailed suggestions for improvement. Their help was and continues to be deeply appreciated. He can be reached at todd period davis at kysu period edu.
