Byron's Letters

This essay considers the publication history, the evolving critical reception, and the relation to a growing body of scholarship on Romantic period epistolary culture of Byron’s letters. Byron’s immersion in this epistolary culture is examined in detail. The essay sets out, and proceeds to interrogate, the well-established view that the letters are equal to, and perhaps exceed, much of Byron’s poetry as literary performances. The essay also considers the letters chronologically, as representing different periods of Byron’s life, with a particular focus on the effect of fame on the poet’s sense of audience and the letters’ relation to travel writing. The later letters to John Murray, more coterie than private writing, are given detailed consideration. Close readings of particular letters set out some of the literary qualities that distinguish this unique body of epistolary writing.