Byron's War

Roderick Beaton re-examines Lord Byron''s life and writing through the long trajectory of his relationship with Greece. Beginning with the poet''s youthful travels in 1809-1811 Byron''s War traces his years of fame in London and self-imposed exile in Italy that culminated in the decision to devote himself to the cause of Greek independence. Then comes Byron''s dramatic self-transformation while in Cephalonia from Romantic rebel to ''new statesman'' subordinating himself for the first time to a defined political cause in order to begin laying the foundations during his ''hundred days'' at Missolonghi for a new kind of polity in Europe that of the nation-state as we know it today. Byron''s War draws extensively on Greek historical sources and other unpublished documents to tell an individual story that also offers a new understanding of the significance that Greece had for Byron and of Byron''s contribution to the origin of the present-day Greek state.