My review is against this version, rather than Byron himself, 21 Mar 2008
This is quite a disappointing version of Byron's works, it does contain "Don Juan", but it only contains extracts from "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" which is the better book and true source of the Byronic hero, i would suggest a different collection of his works as this does not do him justice, i would suggest Lord Byron: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) as a better collection.

Byron the Hero, 31 Aug 2005
Byron is, by definition, a puzzle of a poet. He adores baiting and testing the reader with his piquant mixture of gossip, gravitas and grace. The poet is capable of ascending into 'high' poetry, and amusing himself with the crudest of jibes at the expense of his esteemed Romantic peers. 'Don Juan' is the perfect example of this tendency in the poetry, and Byron's melancholic reputation is revealed to be a part of this theatrical poet's act. His technical mastery is difficult to better, and his sense of play allows him to subvert the epic in an almost revolutionary style, provoking even modern critics into a frenzy of disagreement as to his true achievement. Joyce and Dostoevsky are his true inheritors.

My review is against this version, rather than Byron himself, 21 Mar 2008
This is quite a disappointing version of Byron's works, it does contain "Don Juan", but it only contains extracts from "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" which is the better book and true source of the Byronic hero, i would suggest a different collection of his works as this does not do him justice, i would suggest Lord Byron: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) as a better collection.

Byron the Hero, 31 Aug 2005
Byron is, by definition, a puzzle of a poet. He adores baiting and testing the reader with his piquant mixture of gossip, gravitas and grace. The poet is capable of ascending into 'high' poetry, and amusing himself with the crudest of jibes at the expense of his esteemed Romantic peers. 'Don Juan' is the perfect example of this tendency in the poetry, and Byron's melancholic reputation is revealed to be a part of this theatrical poet's act. His technical mastery is difficult to better, and his sense of play allows him to subvert the epic in an almost revolutionary style, provoking even modern critics into a frenzy of disagreement as to his true achievement. Joyce and Dostoevsky are his true inheritors.

Magnificently written, hilarious and still relevant today, 21 Jun 2007
Basically i am writing this to contradict another review, the one called 'universal?' and dated january 1999. ive just finished studying this poem for my a levels, and i can safely say that absolutely everything in this poem is a parody or analogy about something or someone else, which is what makes it the masterpeice that it is. Juan's mother Inez is used by Byron to satirise both his own mother and his wife Annabella Milbanke. Juan's lover Haidee's father Lambro is used as a device to demonstrate the stifling effect society has on love etc etc. EVERYTHING in it is meant to mock something else. Byron writes little snippets in the style of Wordsworth then scoffs as at them to show how easy it is (for him anyway) to write that sort of poetry, and also lays into other contempories of his such as Coleridge and Southey. Byron says 'fools are my theme, let satire be my song.' which fools? the fools he knew from his life, who he wrote about in this poem. in order to get the most from this poem, it is probably best to read a biography of Byron in order to understand all of the reference he makes (most of which are extremely funny). i read Maurois and McCarthy, and i'd recomend the latter, 'Byron, life and legend,' by Fiona McCarthy as the best companion to Don Juan.

Magnificent, 28 Apr 1999
Don Juan is one of those works that live forever. One of the greatest works of literature, Byron succeeds in encompassing everything in mock-epic. It has love, politics, passion and satire, to name but the few, and everyone should read it. Aeneid, Iliad, Metamorphoses and Don Juan, are in the same category, but the latter outshines them all!!

Universal?, 02 Jan 1999
The poem attempts to encompass everything, as Byron tells us -- but everything literary, not everything in real life. War, stormy seas, tropical islands, British high-class society, queens and slaves -- all are presented as fictions, parodies, examples, not true portraits. Even the philosophy is purely literary in intent, none of it applicable to people on earth, but only to people in the world of early-nineteenth-century literature.

My review is against this version, rather than Byron himself, 21 Mar 2008
This is quite a disappointing version of Byron's works, it does contain "Don Juan", but it only contains extracts from "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" which is the better book and true source of the Byronic hero, i would suggest a different collection of his works as this does not do him justice, i would suggest Lord Byron: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) as a better collection.

Byron the Hero, 31 Aug 2005
Byron is, by definition, a puzzle of a poet. He adores baiting and testing the reader with his piquant mixture of gossip, gravitas and grace. The poet is capable of ascending into 'high' poetry, and amusing himself with the crudest of jibes at the expense of his esteemed Romantic peers. 'Don Juan' is the perfect example of this tendency in the poetry, and Byron's melancholic reputation is revealed to be a part of this theatrical poet's act. His technical mastery is difficult to better, and his sense of play allows him to subvert the epic in an almost revolutionary style, provoking even modern critics into a frenzy of disagreement as to his true achievement. Joyce and Dostoevsky are his true inheritors.

Magnificently written, hilarious and still relevant today, 21 Jun 2007
Basically i am writing this to contradict another review, the one called 'universal?' and dated january 1999. ive just finished studying this poem for my a levels, and i can safely say that absolutely everything in this poem is a parody or analogy about something or someone else, which is what makes it the masterpeice that it is. Juan's mother Inez is used by Byron to satirise both his own mother and his wife Annabella Milbanke. Juan's lover Haidee's father Lambro is used as a device to demonstrate the stifling effect society has on love etc etc. EVERYTHING in it is meant to mock something else. Byron writes little snippets in the style of Wordsworth then scoffs as at them to show how easy it is (for him anyway) to write that sort of poetry, and also lays into other contempories of his such as Coleridge and Southey. Byron says 'fools are my theme, let satire be my song.' which fools? the fools he knew from his life, who he wrote about in this poem. in order to get the most from this poem, it is probably best to read a biography of Byron in order to understand all of the reference he makes (most of which are extremely funny). i read Maurois and McCarthy, and i'd recomend the latter, 'Byron, life and legend,' by Fiona McCarthy as the best companion to Don Juan.

Magnificent, 28 Apr 1999
Don Juan is one of those works that live forever. One of the greatest works of literature, Byron succeeds in encompassing everything in mock-epic. It has love, politics, passion and satire, to name but the few, and everyone should read it. Aeneid, Iliad, Metamorphoses and Don Juan, are in the same category, but the latter outshines them all!!

Universal?, 02 Jan 1999
The poem attempts to encompass everything, as Byron tells us -- but everything literary, not everything in real life. War, stormy seas, tropical islands, British high-class society, queens and slaves -- all are presented as fictions, parodies, examples, not true portraits. Even the philosophy is purely literary in intent, none of it applicable to people on earth, but only to people in the world of early-nineteenth-century literature.

The king of Romantic Poetry is crowned in all glory., 16 Jan 2001
Rather than the 'debunking' of Romantic poetry, Byron offered an epilogue to its characteristics and sometimes over-serious style. Byron was on the edge of romanticism, verging on modernism, and the conflicts of interest are evident in this collection of his work. Jane Stabler meticulously chooses a varied collection of poems to complement Byron, combining the comic with the melancholic, the witty with the sad.

I reading Byron we can see, more clearly than ever, that the attempt to portray in some what 'What I can ne'er express, / Yet cannot all conceal...' is one of the most important challenges in literature. In a world where identity is questioned, where culture is "post-modern"(!) and where poetry is deemed unfashionable, it is nice to be able to see what the skill of language, vision and self-parody combined can result in.