Byron's Letters and Journals, Vol. 4: Wedlock's the Devil, 1814-1815
Byron's sinewy, funny, electrifying letters are emergency bulletins from a man operating, more often than not, on the extreme edge of despair and disgrace… We begin to read these letters as speedily as he must have written them, held by his scorn, his dissatisfaction with himself and his blazing energy. He is fiercely alive. (Newsweek)[Byron] is one of the most versatile and provocative of our letter writers. More perhaps than any other, he has left us a collection of writings that constitute a brilliant and incisive portrait of their author. (Times Literary Supplement)The first two volumes of Leslie A. Marchand'sByron's Letters and Journalsrepresent an outstanding achievement in humane editing, based on comprehensive and original research. This edition both recasts and synthesizes much earlier scholarship, with very substantial additions to the canon of published material. Marchand's editorial principles are admirable, his commentaries and annotations informative, graceful, and judicious. He has provided the ideal framework for Byron's vivid, witty, and candid letters, the fullest portrayal of Byron's complex nature. (Richard H. Fogle, Ralph F. Matlaw, Murk Schorer, and Geoffrey Hartman, in their citation for the James Russell Lowell Prize of the Modern Language Association)