George Gordon Byron

George Gordon (Noel) Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824), English Romantic poet, was the most renowned English-language poet of his day. His best-known works are the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. The latter remained incomplete on his death. Byron's fame rests not only on his writings, but also on his life, which featured extravagant living, numerous love affairs, debts, separation, allegations of incest and bisexuality and an eventual death from fever after he travelled to fight on the Greek side in the Greek War of Independence. Works Lord Byron (1803), as painted by Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-LebrunLord Byron wrote prolifically.[1] (http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-list.htm) In 1833 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 17 octavo volumes, including a life by Thomas Moore. His magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since Milton's Paradise Lost. Don Juan, Byron's masterpiece, often called the epic of its time, has roots deep in literary tradition and, although regarded by early Victorians as somewhat shocking, equally involves itself with its own contemporary world at all levels – social, political, literary and ideological.