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Anne Isabella Lady Byron
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John Dryden : Don Sebastian
'[At Halnaby, on honeymoon] she [Anne Isabella Milbanke] was reading Dryden's Don Sebastian, which treats of incest, and happened to ask Byron [husband] a question. He said angrily: "Where did you hear that?" '"I looked up and saw that he was holding over me the dagger which he usually wore. I replied, "Oh, only from this book." I was not afraid -- I was persuaded he only did it to terrify me. He put the dagger down and said (I am sure I say it without a feeling of vanity) "If anything could make me believe in heaven, it is the expression of your countenance at this moment."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
William Godwin : Caleb Williams
'"You will know my secret if you will; but if I tell you, you shall be made miserable throughout your life -- I will be another Falkland to you." This reference to Godwin's Caleb Williams was frequent with [Byron]: she [Anne Isabella, his wife] had read the book and understood its meaning'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
Leigh Hunt : Rimini
'In these days [1815-16] she [Lady Byron] was reading Leigh Hunt's Rimini, and copied a passage of twenty lines on the character of Giovanni -- evidently because it was to her as a portrait of another difficult husband [reproduces eight lines of passage, beginning "He kept no reckoning with his sweets and sours; / He'd hold a sullen countenance for hours"]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
Leigh Hunt : Rimini
'In these days [1815-16] she [Lady Byron] was reading Leigh Hunt's Rimini, and copied a passage of twenty lines on the character of Giovanni -- evidently because it was to her as a portrait of another difficult husband [reproduces eight lines of passage, beginning "He kept no reckoning with his sweets and sours; / He'd hold a sullen countenance for hours"]'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
Cicero :
'[During autumn 1817] she [Lady Byron] was well and happy with M. G. [i.e. her friend Lady Gosford] at Kirkby, reading Cicero and admiring his rejection of Expediency, "his assertion of the duties we owe to our Natures."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
Jane Austen : Northanger Abbey
'[From New Year, 1818] Annabella could read the new novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (recommended by Augusta [Leigh]), and contrast that kind of real life with the kind she had learnt to know better [as Byron's estranged wife].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
Jane Austen : Persuasion
'[From New Year, 1818] Annabella could read the new novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (recommended by Augusta [Leigh]), and contrast that kind of real life with the kind she had learnt to know better [as Byron's estranged wife].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
George Gordon Lord Byron : Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto III)
'[John] Murray [Byron's publisher] sent an advance-copy of the new Harold. She [Lady Byron] read the imprecation, supposed to be spoken in the Colosseum: '"... Let me not have worn This iron in my soul in vain -- shall [italics]they[end italics] not mourn?" '-- with the two lines which prophesied his immortality of personal rather than poetic fame: '"But I have that within me that shall tire Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire." 'She feigned indifference at first. "The passage was probably intended to make a great impression on [italics]me[end italics]. Whilst I am so free from disordered brains, this will at least be postponed." It was not long postponed. A day or two later she was "well, but very [italics]weak[end italics] ... The new canto is beautiful indeed"'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
George Gordon Lord Byron : Don Juan
'Early in July [1819] appeared the first part of Don Juan. "The impression was not so disagreeable as I expected, wrote Annabella [Anne Isabella, Byron's estranged wife]. '"In the first place I am very much relieved to find that there is not anything which I can be expected to notice [...] I do not think that my sins are in the pharisaical or pedantic line, and I am very sure that he does not think they are, but avails himself of the prejudices which some may entertain against me, to give a plausible colouring to his accusations. I must however confess that the quizzing in one or two passages was so good as to make me smile at myself -- therefore others are quite welcome to laugh.... I do not feel inclined to continue the perusal. It is always a task to me now to read his works, in which, through all the levity, I discern enough to awaken very painful feelings."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
George Gordon Lord Byron : The Giaour
'Early in 1831 there is the following entry in a diary [of Lady Byron's]: "Read to Ada the beautiful lines on Greece in The Giaour, the Fare thee well, and the Satire. With the first she was highly pleased, from its [italics]effusion-of-feeling[end italics] character; the 2nd she thought laboured and inferior in pathos; the 3rd very amusing though very unlike the person." This disproves once for all the legend invented by Teresa Guiccioli [Byron's last mistress] that Ada never heard of her father's poetry until a year before she died in 1852!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
George Gordon Lord Byron : 'Fare thee well' (lyric verses)
'Early in 1831 there is the following entry in a diary [of Lady Byron's]: "Read to Ada the beautiful lines on Greece in The Giaour, the Fare thee well, and the Satire. With the first she was highly pleased, from its [italics]effusion-of-feeling[end italics] character; the 2nd she thought laboured and inferior in pathos; the 3rd very amusing though very unlike the person." This disproves once for all the legend the legend invented by Teresa Guiccioli [Byron's last mistress] that Ada never heard of her father's poetry until a year before she died in 1852!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
George Gordon Lord Byron : 'the Satire'
'Early in 1831 there is the following entry in a diary [of Lady Byron's]: "Read to Ada the beautiful lines on Greece in The Giaour, the Fare thee well, and the Satire. With the first she was highly pleased, from its [italics]effusion-of-feeling[end italics] character; the 2nd she thought laboured and inferior in pathos; the 3rd very amusing though very unlike the person." This disproves once for all the legend the legend invented by Teresa Guiccioli [Byron's last mistress] that Ada never heard of her father's poetry until a year before she died in 1852!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
Harriet Martineau : Five Years of Youth
'The girl [Ada Byron] was then [1831] seventeen; her mother had been reading Harriet Martineau's Five Years of Youth, and wrote to a friend: "It is very good -- chiefly directed against Romance, and therefore not necessary for Ada."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
Thomas Moore : Life of Byron
'The first volume of "Lord Byron's Life and Letters," published on the 1st of January, 1830, was read with enthusiasm, and met with a very favourable reception. Moore says in his Diary, that "Lady Byron was highly pleased with the 'Life'"'.
