Byron Bits 10: Gone with the Wind
Byron was not only out of his country and out of favour, self-exiled in Italy, but also out of his own time. Philosopically, he belonged to a world that was fas...
Category: Audio
Byron Bits 9: Virtuosic Rhyme
Why, I wonder, does Byron, whose intellectual curiosity was enormous and who loved the opera, the theatre, drama — and dramatic individuals — make...
Byron Bits 8: Juan & Older Women
She was not old, nor young, nor at the yearsWhich certain people call a ‘certain Age,‘Which yet the most uncertain age appears… Lord Byron, Beppo xxii (181...
Byron Bits 7: Sex and Instagram
Byron's comic epic Don Juan is on the surface a boy's own adventure but it soon becomes apparent that it's not boys who are not driving the narrative.
More Byron Bits
Byron Bits are short talks on Lord Byron's greatest poem. BB5 and BB6 explore the penultimate episodes in the unfinished poem and ponder what point Byron was tr...
Byron Bits: short talks on Don Juan
Byron Bits: short recorded talks on Lord Byron and his great, unfinished poem, Don Juan.
Don Juan Cantos I & II, Bicentennial Edition
An annotated and narrated edition of Cantos I & II of Byron's Don Juan, celebrating 200 years since first publication. Download & enjoy.
An announcement
To celebrate the bicentenary of the first publication of Byron’s “Don Juan” on 15 July 1819, I’ll be releasing an annotated and narrated version of Cantos I + I...
Death in Don Juan
If Don Juan is lots of fun, as I claim, why does death figure in it so frequently?
An audio recording of Canto IX of Byron’s Don Juan
Here’s a recording — about 2‑years old — of Canto IX of Don Juan. The recording (MP3) is in three parts. It’s best to read along with the text of the po...