msfry wrote:The True Story Of Lady Byron’s Life, in three parts.
An article published in the Atlantic in 1869.
By Harriet Beecher Stowe
Countess Guiccioli's book, The Life of Lord Byron In Italy, claimed many falsehoods about Lady Byron and overlooked or glorified Lord Byron's many bad habits. Stowe wrote this article to counteract that book and defend her friend. Atlantic lost 15,000 subscribers in the months following publication of this article due to Lord Byron's extreme popularity, and the perception that Harriet was just being a religious prude and a tattle tale . . . . or maybe because it mentioned the taboo subjects of incest, infidelity, and bi-sexuality. This backlash led Harriet to write a full length book in 1870 entitled Lady Byron Vindicated, the Story of the Byron Controversy, which I plan to post as a solo at some point.
I could have fit the article into two parts time wise, but the subject matter broke better into 3. Use wherever you think it fits best, so long as they stay together in one volume (of course).
Hi Michele,
My goodness, I can see why this article in
The Atlantic created such a sensation in 1869! I had never read anything by H.Beecher Stowe, so I didn't know she was such a spirited writer! Also, I most certainly had never given any thought to Lord Byron, not to his poetry nor to his "Woody Allen" lifestyle. The poetry, at least from the lines Beecher Stowe quotes, is self-serving in a way that would make today's women cringe.
"His fame, too, for he had that kind of fame
Which sometimes plays the deuce with womankind,
A heterogeneous mass of glorious blame,
Half virtues and whole vices being combined;
Faults which attract because they are not tame;
Follies tricked out so brightly that they blind;
"And then he had good looks; that point was carried
Nem. con. amongst the women, . . . .
Now though we know of old that looks deceive,
And always have done somehow, these good looks
Make more impression than the best of books.
Yuck... I wonder how Byron would have fared in the hands of Ellen Pao.
PL, OK!
