Lord Byron's Novel - Annotated by John Crowley (Paperback)

About the Book

Crowley delivers a stunning act of literary impersonation: imagining the novel the haunted, enigmatic Romantic poet Lord Byron never penned but very well might have--a story of two women from different centuries bound together by love, loss, and a need to connect with the fathers who abandoned them.

From the Back Cover

One of our most accomplished literary artists, John Crowley imagines the novel the haunted Romantic poet Lord Byron never penned ...but very well might have. Saved from destruction, read, and annotated by Byron's own abandoned daughter, Ada, the manuscript is rediscovered in our time -- and almost not recognized. Lord Byron's Novel is the story of a dying daughter's attempt to understand the famous father she longed for -- and the young woman who, by learning the secret of Byron's manuscript and Ada's devotion, reconnects with her own father, driven from her life by a crime as terrible as any of which Byron himself was accused.

Review Quotes

"A master storyteller, a superb stylist, and a seer into the mysteries of Eros." - Harold Bloom
"Though it's an impertinent undertaking, it's also a beautiful success . . . Both charmingly romantic and stoically realistic." - Seattle Times
"A complex, nested novel of literary and biographical reconstruction . . . A stunning, rewarding work." - Vancouver Sun
"One of 2005's most accomplished novels." - Washington Times
"An astounding display of scholarship and imagination . . . remarkable." - Washington Post Book World
"Remarkable and convincing . . . Despite its Romantic trappings, LORD BYRON'S NOVEL pulses with contemporary vitality." - Toronto Star
"An eerily authentic simulation of Romantic literature . . . beautiful." - Boston Globe
"[An] intricate and stylish romp . . . both a Gothic extravaganza and a picaresque adventure." - New York Times Book Review