Byron: The Erotic Liberal

Book info: Byron: The Erotic Liberal (Paperback, 248 pages) – Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. Language: English.

Byron: The Erotic Liberal is the first book to focus on the erotic dimension of Byron's political career, as expressed in both Byron's poetry and his prose. Jonathan David Gross draws on extensive archival research into the life and letters of Lady Melbourne, whose correspondence with Byron shaped his erotic imagination and influenced his engagement with the biblical story of Joseph. Gross places Byron's politics in the context of the writings of other European aristocratic liberals, such as Madame de Sta`l, to consider anew Byron's relationship to women and his political peers. Yet Gross successfully brings Byron into our modern age, making use of recent work in women's studies and gay studies to explain how Byron's sexuality shaped his political beliefs. Editorial Reviews Review Byron's politics are so complicated that few have even attempted to write book-length studies about them, and Gross should be commended for even trying to take on such a bewildering complex set of issues. We emerge from his book full of insights and questions about the meaning of the term 'liberal' and the ways it might be nuanced by one's erotic vitality. (James Soderholm)

Byron: The Erotic Liberal is a keen biographical and critical account of Byron's politics of feeling. In such chapters as that on the narrator of Don Juan as homoerotic, Gross provokes and persuades. (Carl Woodring)

Jonathan Gross demonstrates a sound knowledge of historical contexts, cultural codes, and Byron scholarship. (Studies In Romanticism)

This book is a significant contribution to Byron studies. Gross is well informed in the social and political details of Byron's English milieu, but he is also well prepared to read Byron's career as erotic liberal through the lens of contemporary gay studies and through the biblical story of Joseph. His ability to see connections between Byron and contemporary American liberalism is ingenious. (Graham, Peter) About the Author Jonathan David Gross is associate professor of English at DePaul University. He is the editor of Byron's 'Corbeau Blanc': The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Milbanke, Lady Melbourne (1997).