Glorious Apollo: A Novel of Lord Byron

by E. Barrington

“Mad, bad and dangerous to know…”

Caroline Lamb’s fatal description would follow Byron to his grave.

He might have been among the greatest of English poets. But the bad luck of the Byron's had plagued him from birth.

The son of Mad Jack Byron whose wild escapades were the talk of the town, and Miss Gordon of Gight, a Scotch heiress whose wretched marriage with Mad Jack worked her up to fever of rage and grief, he had had many bitter moments of poverty and slight in his young life.

With his beauty, intelligence and peerage, he had the chance repair his broken fortune by picking and choosing among the wealthiest women in England.

But Byron was his own worst enemy…

After the neglect and abuse he received at the hands of his mother, he vowed to make the female sex pay for their treatment of him.

And with his laughing eyes, moody pallor, and aloof nature, he soon had women, from all social classes, falling at his feet.

As his literary reputation grew, so did his reputation as a rake.

But when doors start slamming in his face, he decides he needs to settle down.

Enchanted by the modest and quietly intelligent Annabella Millbanke, he asks for her hand in marriage.

But it isn’t long before his eyes start to wander once again…

And before long, not only rumours of other lovers, but even of incest are plaguing their marriage…

As Byron hurtles down a path of self-destruction, he is set to lose everything he ever cared about…

‘Glorious Apollo’ is a thrilling classic tale of the life and loves of Lord Byron.

E Barrington is a pseudonym of Elizabeth Louisa Moresby (1862 – 3 January 1931), a British-born novelist who became the first prolific, female fantasy writer in Canada. Her other historical novels include ‘Glorious Apollo: The Life of Lord Byron’, ‘Queen of Hearts: A Novel of Marie Antoinette’ and ‘The Laughing Queen: A Novel of Cleopatra’.

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305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Pseudonym of Elizabeth Louisa Moresby.

Elizabeth Louisa "Lily" Moresby was born on late 1862 in Queenstown, Cork, Ireland, UK, the second child of Irish Jane Willis (Scott) and English John Moresby, a Royal Navy Captain who explored the coast of New Guinea and was the first European to discover the site of Port Moresby. She was grand-daughter of Eliza Louisa and Fairfax Moresby. She had a eldest brother Walter Halliday, and four youngest sisters Ethel Fortescue, Georgina, Hilda Fairfax and Gladys Moresby. Due to he father's work and her marriage to a Royal Navy commander Edward Western Hodgkinson, she lived and traveled widely in the East, in Egypt, India, China, Tibet, and Japan. Asian culture would greatly influence her and became a staunch Buddhist. She collabored in the writing of her father's book. Two Admirals: Sir John Moresby and John Moresby (1909).

After widowing around 1910, she remarried in 1912 to retired solicitor Ralph Coker Adams Beck. In 1919, the marriage visit Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where she settled alone eventually. Surrounded by her Oriental art and Oriental servants, she entertained fortnightly at her home on Mountjoy Avenue in Oak Bay as a strict vegetarian with ascetic inclinations.

She began her writing career publishing short-stories for Newspapers and Magazzines. She was 60 years old by the time she started to publishing her first books. She used various pen names such as L. Adams Beck for books in oriental setting or about esoteric themes, E. Barrington for novelized biographies of British historical figures, and Louis Moresby for novles set in exotic locales.

She returned to Asia, and continued to write until her death on 3 January 1931 in Miyako Hotel, Kyoto, Japan.

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Endeavour Press have been publishing some very intriguing titles recently, including reissues of some older or out-of-print historical fiction novels. I had never heard of the author E. Barrington (a pseudonym of Elizabeth Louisa Moresby, who also wrote under the name Lily Adams Beck) but when I saw Glorious Apollo available on NetGalley I thought I would give it a try.

A bestseller in the 1920s, Glorious Apollo is a fictional biography of the Romantic poet, Lord Byron. Beginning as he prepares to takes his seat in the House of Lords in 1809, the novel takes us through Byron's entire life and career right up to his death in Greece at the age of thirty-six.

The main focus of the novel is on the women in Byron's life, particularly Lady Caroline Lamb, Augusta Leigh and Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke. Caroline had an affair with Byron while married to William Lamb, Lord Melbourne, and is the woman who famously described him as "mad, bad and dangerous to know"; Augusta, Byron's half-sister, was believed to be involved in an incestuous relationship with the poet; Anne was his wife and the mother of his daughter, Ada, but her marriage to Byron was not a happy one. While other aspects of his life and career are also covered in the novel – such as several of his male friendships, his health and weight problems, and the inspiration behind some of his poetry – none of these other things are given as much attention as his relationships with these three women.

This is a novel, so it can't be assumed that everything in the book happened exactly as Barrington writes it, but it does seem to me that she has closely followed historical fact. At times the book reads more like a work of non-fiction, particularly at the beginning when we are given a lot of biographical information to help us understand Byron's family background, but she has clearly used some imagination to fill in the gaps, to recreate conversations and to convey the thoughts and emotions of the characters. However, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to get inside Byron’s head more often and to see more of the story from his own perspective rather than from the perspectives of the people around him. The author's sympathies do seem to be mainly with Anne and the overall impression the book gives of Byron himself is not a very flattering one.

Throughout the novel Barrington also draws on letters, diaries and other primary sources, sometimes quoting from them directly, and she also incorporates extracts from poems, some by Byron and some by other poets. Many of Byron's major works are briefly discussed, including Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Manfred, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, and So We’ll Go No More A-Roving, and their significance in the context of Byron’s personal life is explored.

Although I did enjoy some parts of the story – and there’s no doubt that Byron is a fascinating subject – Glorious Apollo didn't quite work for me as a novel. I found Barrington's writing slightly dry and I couldn't help feeling that the book would have worked better as non-fiction rather than fiction. It was an interesting read, though, and worth considering if you would like to learn more about Byron and his poetry. I'm still curious about Barrington's other novels, which include books on Anne Boleyn and Marie Antoinette, so if anyone has read them I would love to know what you thought!

[Oshun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1925 and the style and approach differs from the current historical fiction that most of us are accustomed to reading. She breaks no new ground, following the historical details closely. I actually liked her approach, although at times it feels distant compared to more contemporary books. I liked the use of poetry to introduce the chapters and also the degree to which she ties life events into what Bryon is creating at any given point. The use of multiple points of view works--largely, although not entirely, from the perspective of the women in his life. Now I want to read a book that tries to view through Byron's eyes. (She does quote his letters a lot, but they need interpretation, because he may tailor himself to the recipient, sometimes disingenuously, as well as ranting at times.)

[Jenni Schell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a great story. Lord Byron was, by far, his own worst enemy. This book tells the story of how he came to be such a complicated man and the destruction that came from it. I loved it.

[Marvin Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting and informative read. The life, excesses and madness(?) of Lord Byron.