Byron's emotional and erotic life, which he indulged with an
unstoppable energy, is a key element in understanding his powerful
and passionate personality, as well as the society of his day,
which was scandalised by his behaviour even while being conquered
by his extraordinary charm. The Sour Fruit. Lord Byron, Love &
Sex looks at the poet's now generally acknowledged bisexuality in
all its aspects, from his fleeting liaisons to his love-affairs,
female (his half-sister Augusta, Caroline Lamb and Teresa
Guiccioli) and male (John Edleston, Nicolo Giraud and Loukas
Chalandritsanos). The book's original approach provides unusual and
fascinating insights, notably into Byron's homosexuality, hitherto
relatively unexplored, and reveals a more truthful picture of the
poet. Byron was strongly attracted to boys, who are referred to in
Don Juan as 'sour fruit'. In his adolescence he had fallen for
aristocratic contemporaries but would later be attracted to boys of
a lower social station. He had several same-sex experiences in
England, encouraged by the circle he frequented at Cambridge,
particularly his friend Matthews, as well as during his Grand Tour,
during which he was able to freely live out behaviours frowned on
at home. In early 19th-century England, homosexuality was a
criminal offence punished with the pillory or even hanging, and
Byron preferred to keep his transgressive experiences to himself,
or share them only with a restricted group of like-minded friends.
There are numerous veiled references to the range of his tastes in
his works and his letters, which adopt a code aimed at the
initiated that we are today better able to decipher. Innuendos
abound, pointing to aspects of his submerged life, to adultery,
incest and, above all, homosexuality - and we can now more fully
appreciate the wit and verve of his letters as well as a clutch of
agonised love-poems. An appended chapter examines Don Leon, an
anonymous work purporting to be by Byron himself and salaciously
recounting his love-life, which was first published some forty
years after his death and has been on more than one occasion banned
for obscenity.
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