Leslie Alexis Marchand (1900–1999)

2120 Byron: A Biography Volume I, by Leslie A. Marchand (read 19 Jan 1988) In this 200th anniversary year of Byron's birth--he was born Jan 22, 1788--I have just finished the first volume of this great biography. It is superlatively done. I, of course, cannot admire Byron but his life is a study. I found the account of his first trip --1809 to 1811--to Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, Malta, Albania, Greece, Turkey, etc. exceptionally interesting and well-told. This book is excellent biography: the first chapter ends before Byron's birth. Supposedly Byron read 4000 books by the time he was 15. I don't believe it. I am almost 60, and won't reach 4000 if I live to be 100 [wrong--I am not yet 80 and am well over 4000]. Byron's extravagance is simply disgusting, as is his immorality. The volume ends in 1814, just after Arabella Milbanks accepts his proposal.

2121 Byron: A Biography Volume II, by Leslie A. Marchand (read 23 Jan 1988) This volume covers Byron's life from his engagement to his arrival in Pisa in 1821. I find Byron's life shocking and I can have no admiration for the promiscuous life he led. He left England in 1816 and went to Switzerland, then Italy. He took up with various immoral women, the current one (1821) being Teresa. I found the book interesting, though it doesn't spend a lot of time discussing what he wrote as the time goes on.

2122 Byron: A Biography Volume III, by Leslie A. Marchand (read 30 Jan 1988) This is the final volume. I found it so detailed as to be tedious, especially since the volumes are very light on analysis or description of his poetry. The great biographies of Keats--the one I read by Aileen Ward on 13 Jan 1964 and the one by Robert Gittings read 5 Oct 1868--were enjoyed so much because of the superb way the poet's writings were interweaved into his life. Marchand does not do as good a job in this regard it seems to me. This volume III is at least half devoted to Byron's time in Greece, when he wrote very little. He did little in Greece, so it gets rather boring. This biography has a full chapter--34 pages--covering events after Byron's death in April 1824, which I believe must be a record as to biographies I've read.… (mais)