But in general, Byron's female attachments dwindled quickly in intensity.Īs for the criticism that MacCarthy neglects Byron's poetry, she does in fact bring considerable insight to his work, but her main concern is Byron the man and Byron the 19th-century phenomenon. Byron liked the chase, the reassurance of heterosexual conquest. In an essay in her book Lord Byron: Accounts Rendered Doris Langley Moore has argued that Byron's love affairs with women were his main emotional focus, his relations with boys being no more than diversions. Our understanding of Byron's bisexuality, an open secret within his own close circle, throws important light on the pattern of his life. First, MacCarthy clearly is more forthright than her predecessors in discussing Byron's sexuality, a forthrightness made possible by changes in public opinion and the legalization of homosexuality in England. Likewise other reviewers have complained that Fiona MacCarthy has either overemphasized Byron's homoerotic inclinations or slighted his poetry.

Fleming is unhappy that MacCarthy portrays Byron's love interests as fundamentally male. According to her, MacCarthy is admirably responsive to Byron's poetry, but thoroughly dislikes him as a man. The opposite tack is taken by Anne Fleming in The Times Literary Supplement. Anne Barton in The New York Review of Books praises MacCarthy's 'empathy with Byron' but deplores her 'seeming lack of interest in poetry generally, and of Byron's in particular,' finally admitting that the biography is 'balanced, fair, thoroughly researched, and beautifully written.' 674 pages, $35.įIONA MacCarthy has written the most important Byron biography in half a century, published by John Murray, Byron's own publisher.

Fiona maccarthy byron