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In Byron's Wake: The Turbulent Lives of Lord Byron's Wife and Daughter: Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace
In 1815, the clever, courted, and cherished Annabella Milbanke married the notorious and brilliant Lord Byron. Just one year later, she fled, taking with her their baby daughter, the future Ada Lovelace. Byron himself escaped into exile and died as a revolutionary hero in 1824, aged 36. The one thing he had asked his wife to do was to make sure that their daughter never became a poet.
Ada didn’t. Brought up by a mother who became one of the most progressive reformers of Victorian England, Byron’s little girl was introduced to mathematics as a means of calming her wild spirits. Educated by some of the most learned minds in England, she combined that scholarly discipline with a rebellious heart and a visionary imagination. As a child invalid, Ada dreamed of building a steam-driven flying horse. As an exuberant and boldly unconventional young woman, she amplified her explanations of Charles Babbage’s unbuilt calculating engine to predict—as nobody would do for another century—the dawn of the modern computer age. When Ada died—like her father, she was only 36—great things seemed still to lie ahead for her as a passionate astronomer. Even while mired in debt from gambling and crippled by cancer, she was frenetically employing Faraday’s experiments with light refraction to explore the analysis of distant stars.
Drawing on fascinating new material, Seymour reveals the ways in which Byron, long after his death, continued to shape the lives and reputations both of his wife and his daughter. During her life, Lady Byron was praised as a paragon of virtue; within ten years of her death, she was vilified as a disgrace to her sex. Well over a hundred years later, Annabella Milbanke is still perceived as a prudish wife and cruelly controlling mother. But her hidden devotion to Byron and her tender ambitions for his mercurial, brilliant daughter reveal a deeply complex but unexpectedly sympathetic personality.
Miranda Seymour has written a masterful portrait of two remarkable women, revealing how two turbulent lives were often governed and always haunted by the dangerously enchanting, quicksilver spirit of that extraordinary father whom Ada never knew.
Ada didn’t. Brought up by a mother who became one of the most progressive reformers of Victorian England, Byron’s little girl was introduced to mathematics as a means of calming her wild spirits. Educated by some of the most learned minds in England, she combined that scholarly discipline with a rebellious heart and a visionary imagination. As a child invalid, Ada dreamed of building a steam-driven flying horse. As an exuberant and boldly unconventional young woman, she amplified her explanations of Charles Babbage’s unbuilt calculating engine to predict—as nobody would do for another century—the dawn of the modern computer age. When Ada died—like her father, she was only 36—great things seemed still to lie ahead for her as a passionate astronomer. Even while mired in debt from gambling and crippled by cancer, she was frenetically employing Faraday’s experiments with light refraction to explore the analysis of distant stars.
Drawing on fascinating new material, Seymour reveals the ways in which Byron, long after his death, continued to shape the lives and reputations both of his wife and his daughter. During her life, Lady Byron was praised as a paragon of virtue; within ten years of her death, she was vilified as a disgrace to her sex. Well over a hundred years later, Annabella Milbanke is still perceived as a prudish wife and cruelly controlling mother. But her hidden devotion to Byron and her tender ambitions for his mercurial, brilliant daughter reveal a deeply complex but unexpectedly sympathetic personality.
Miranda Seymour has written a masterful portrait of two remarkable women, revealing how two turbulent lives were often governed and always haunted by the dangerously enchanting, quicksilver spirit of that extraordinary father whom Ada never knew.
568 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
September 22, 2019
After having read numerous biographies of Byron - some sympathetic, others less so - it seems to have become standard to write off Annabella Milbanke as his 'plain' do-gooder wife who bored Byron to tears... how nice, then, to find Seymour reviving this far more complicated woman and giving her a life before and after her abortive marriage.
It may come as a surprise to find Milbanke the toast of the season, fending off various suitors and turning down marriage proposals before Byron exploded onto her scene. She was an active participant in their on/off courtship, though her blinkered naivety about her ability, indeed pressing desire, to reform this rake is ominous to modern readers, as is the fact that the latter part of their courtship was exclusively by letter and they hadn't seen each other for 18 months in the run-up to the eventual wedding.
While this uses letters to establish feelings of all the participants, there's a sort of distance in the writing that I found a bit disconcerting. The ménage-`a-trois nature of the marriage with Augusta Leigh taking the third point isn't quite as clear as I've seen it written about elsewhere, and Byron's oscillations between bullying and charming described with less clarity.
It is good, though, to see what Milbanke goes on to do after her marriage, especially her philanthropic projects.
I found Ada Byron far less interesting as a subject, in this book at least. Seymour seems to have fallen in love with her subject here and Ada came over to me as a bit of a privileged brat, no matter how she was scarred by her parents' separation.
So an uneven read for me - but I enjoyed the fuller view we get of Milbanke immensely.
It may come as a surprise to find Milbanke the toast of the season, fending off various suitors and turning down marriage proposals before Byron exploded onto her scene. She was an active participant in their on/off courtship, though her blinkered naivety about her ability, indeed pressing desire, to reform this rake is ominous to modern readers, as is the fact that the latter part of their courtship was exclusively by letter and they hadn't seen each other for 18 months in the run-up to the eventual wedding.
While this uses letters to establish feelings of all the participants, there's a sort of distance in the writing that I found a bit disconcerting. The ménage-`a-trois nature of the marriage with Augusta Leigh taking the third point isn't quite as clear as I've seen it written about elsewhere, and Byron's oscillations between bullying and charming described with less clarity.
It is good, though, to see what Milbanke goes on to do after her marriage, especially her philanthropic projects.
I found Ada Byron far less interesting as a subject, in this book at least. Seymour seems to have fallen in love with her subject here and Ada came over to me as a bit of a privileged brat, no matter how she was scarred by her parents' separation.
So an uneven read for me - but I enjoyed the fuller view we get of Milbanke immensely.
March 4, 2020
The two subjects of this biography, Annabella Milbanke Byron and her daughter Ada Byron Lovelace, are both fascinating people. Complex, contradictory, brilliant, they are both worth the full biographical treatment, and their inherent interest took me through to the end of this lengthy book.
Seymour has done a very thorough scholarly job and the book is rich in telling detail. Unfortunately, the challenge of telling both stories within the same covers made it awkward and uneven. The first third or so is all about Annabella, but once Ada is born she takes up the lion's share of the focus, even though Annabella is simultaneously leading an active and extraordinary life, mentioned only in passing from time to time. Eventually we get back to her, but the heart of her life is already past and too much time is spent at the end on her postmortem reputation, a subject of more scholarly than general interest. The author would have done better to write two separate biographies.
There are a few odd biases in Seymour's approach. She focuses repeatedly on sexual issues--speculating about whether extramarital affairs were physical or platonic, for instance, or when exactly Byron was sleeping with this or that woman. At the same time, she often refers to medical and psychological symptoms without trying to shed any light on them--far more relevant to understanding the person in my view. Consulting with experts might have led to diagnosis and offered context. What were the medical issues they both faced and overcame in the earlier parts of their lives? Was Ada bipolar or schizophrenic? These reticences frustrated me and left the picture incomplete.
I do want to reiterate that the inherent interest of these two women makes this book well worth reading, despite my issues with it.
Seymour has done a very thorough scholarly job and the book is rich in telling detail. Unfortunately, the challenge of telling both stories within the same covers made it awkward and uneven. The first third or so is all about Annabella, but once Ada is born she takes up the lion's share of the focus, even though Annabella is simultaneously leading an active and extraordinary life, mentioned only in passing from time to time. Eventually we get back to her, but the heart of her life is already past and too much time is spent at the end on her postmortem reputation, a subject of more scholarly than general interest. The author would have done better to write two separate biographies.
There are a few odd biases in Seymour's approach. She focuses repeatedly on sexual issues--speculating about whether extramarital affairs were physical or platonic, for instance, or when exactly Byron was sleeping with this or that woman. At the same time, she often refers to medical and psychological symptoms without trying to shed any light on them--far more relevant to understanding the person in my view. Consulting with experts might have led to diagnosis and offered context. What were the medical issues they both faced and overcame in the earlier parts of their lives? Was Ada bipolar or schizophrenic? These reticences frustrated me and left the picture incomplete.
I do want to reiterate that the inherent interest of these two women makes this book well worth reading, despite my issues with it.
May 17, 2020
This is a highly readable and useful look at mother-daughter pair Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace, and how their lives were shaped by -- and how they framed their lives related to -- Lord Byron. In particular, this dual biography does important work in rescuing Milbanke as her own person, with her own accomplishments, in the face of many pro-Byron works demonizing or dismissing her in order to praise him. Miranda Seymour also draws connections I'd failed to see before between Milbanke's later support for philanthropic and artistic causes and important creators such as George MacDonald. I would have benefited from a bit more about Ada's lasting legacy, but this has been covered by different writers. On the whole, I highly recommend this readable and sensitive-yet-fair analysis.
December 8, 2018
A brilliantly written biography. I came away realizing that it is Lady Byron who should be admired as an early feminist pioneer rather than her daughter. Put in a position of financial independence she did a great deal to set up schools devoted to teaching working class people around the world as well as interacting with all the other brilliant women achievers of her time. But she ends up villified because she is strong, independent and hence seen by historians as a bitch.
Ada who has earned a much better recent reputation comes across much more as a dilletante with an inflated view of her own genius and a penchant for deception of those love her: a spoiled brat in short.
As a woman programmer I have to say reading the details of what Ada did with Babbage made me think she has been overhyped as the first programmer. The language used to justify that claim is very vague. So much else of what she considered her scientific studies was just silly. She comes across as very selfish and not all that mentally balanced, just like her father. The drugs both took didn't help. Opiates and in Byron's case, mercury in the form of calomel for his "liver" (yeah, right.)
But her mom: a brilliant investor, executive, giving person etc as well as the mainstay of her family.
I have enjoyed Ms. Seymour's earlier biographies and look forward to reading more.
Ada who has earned a much better recent reputation comes across much more as a dilletante with an inflated view of her own genius and a penchant for deception of those love her: a spoiled brat in short.
As a woman programmer I have to say reading the details of what Ada did with Babbage made me think she has been overhyped as the first programmer. The language used to justify that claim is very vague. So much else of what she considered her scientific studies was just silly. She comes across as very selfish and not all that mentally balanced, just like her father. The drugs both took didn't help. Opiates and in Byron's case, mercury in the form of calomel for his "liver" (yeah, right.)
But her mom: a brilliant investor, executive, giving person etc as well as the mainstay of her family.
I have enjoyed Ms. Seymour's earlier biographies and look forward to reading more.
May 1, 2018
This book is in four parts - three of which were excellent. Part 1 deals with Byron's wife Annabella and was wonderfully interesting. Annabella spent her deb years turning down marriage proposals but accepted Byron because she thought she could save him, but sadly he himself didn't want to be saved. Despite her marriage breaking down, Annabella went on to start many schools for the under-privileged. Part 2 deals with Ada Byron's daughter whose mother comes across as spoiled and willful. This was the weakest part for me. You get the impression Seymour liked Ada too much to be objective. Parts 3 and 4 were interesting as we discovered how these two strong and stubborn women managed to forge a relationship with each other. This would have been an excellent read if it weren't for the disappointing part 2.
May 26, 2019
Clearly, a lot of research went into this book. If you’re looking for details on the neighbors, lovers, and acquaintances of the characters, you’ll find them here. What you won’t find is much of an investigation into the mathematical work of Ada Lovelace, or details about her mother’s charities. This is a chronicle of the emotional devastation and woundedness caused by the short unhappy marriage of Byron and Arabella and the effects on their daughter Ada. I was hoping for much more about the time Ada spent with Babbage, but this biographer believes that material has been covered elsewhere.
January 22, 2019
It's such a cliche, but this is a biography that reads like fiction -- these two Byron women led quite eventful lives. Could hardly put it down.
October 22, 2018
A thorough and well-researched biography, IN BYRON'S WAKE is a captivating read. Miranda Seymour uses the letters and correspondences of Annabella Byron and Ada Lovelace, as well as their friends and family to put together an in-depth view of their lives. More than that though, this book made me feel as though these women were my friends —my heart bled for them when they struggled, and I cheered for their triumphs. As I read about the breakdown of the Byrons' marriage, I actually had to walk away for a little bit in anger, and as I neared the end I found myself wishing for an alternate version of history where Ada lived and was able to accomplish everything she wanted to. Honestly, it's a shame the most interesting thing about Lord Byron was the women he was related to.
November 22, 2018
Took seven days to read 35 pages. Completely bored with either Annabella and/or the author. I’m interested in Ada but will find another bio.
February 25, 2022
Lady Byron is a figure that it seems people (i.e. biographers) either deify or completely write off as a bitter Betty unappreciative of her very famous husband's genius. Miranda Seymour seems to take the former approach, defending Lady Byron to the point of willfully misinterpreting her subject. There is complexity to every human that is hard for a biographer to accurately capture, and Seymour seems to be more interested in defending Lady Byron from her naysayers than in really capturing the truth of who she was. She mentions Doris Langley Moore, a Byron biographer who fiercely debunks Lady Byron's angelic persona, and it seems as though her staunch defense of the deceased scorned woman is a direct response to Moore - something that I've seen in other biographies about other subjects by other authors as well - but something that makes the whole thing biased at best.
Where I took particular issue was in Seymour's framing of Lady Byron's written communications, which have often been used against her. Writing is a medium that undoubtedly allows for the most deliberate and calculated way of communicating, not easily tripped up by outside stressors as long as the writer engages in editing or basic self-censorship, and yet Seymour insists that Lady Byron's intent was always at odds with what she communicated through her writing. Honestly, that assertion defies belief.
Annabella Byron showed tremendous capacity for conveying exactly what she wanted through her written letters - her acute sensitivity to the way she was perceived made her an expert manipulator, capable of convincing just about anyone to do just about anything she wanted without even having to ask. Using the excuse that she was an oblivious little dum-dum who just couldn't figure out how to communicate what she meant through the written word as a way of excusing the times she was condescending or rude is ludicrous. She, like every human being, had her moments of being a total asshole, and making excuses for her doesn't undo that.
On that same note, Seymour makes assertions about other people's characters that are entirely unsupported by any evidence *I* have seen, and which she fails to provide anything to support. Specifically, I'm referring to her characterization of Augusta Leigh (Byron's sister and probable lover) as a calculating homewrecker who spent years convincing Byron he should stay estranged from Annabella, when in fact the opposite was true. Augusta Leigh frequently did her best to keep the more acidic sides of Byron and Annabella from each other in order to foster a reconciliation, because regardless of whether or not she was sleeping with her brother, she cared about both parties enough to want the best for them. Beyond that, Augusta Leigh was frankly a dumbass. She was described by her contemporaries as such. To imagine that she was pulling the strings to keep her brother, who even Seymour admits loved Annabella, away from his wife and daughter just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
Additionally, Seymour supplies and then ignores evidence that Annabella was frankly a vindictive sort of woman who held a grudge and cut people off with only the slightest of provocation - something that could be applied by her detractors to her absconding from her husband without a word about why she was leaving. Seymour lists no less than three people from Annabella's life (Lord Lovelace, her daughter's husband, the aforementioned Augusta Leigh, and a friend of hers) that she viciously cut off without them even comprehending what they had done to piss her off so much, but despite all of that Seymour prefers to frame Annabella as a lovely, generous woman who was loved by many and derided by a few posthumously in an attempt to amplify Byron by discrediting his wife. All of those things are true, but ignoring the former and amplifying the latter only makes Seymour's book come across as incomplete and biased to someone with further knowledge of the topic.
With that said, there was a lot of very interesting information in this book and as it is my first introduction to Ada Lovelace as an adult, I found it to be quite informative. Seeing the ways in which the scandalous breakup of Annabella and Byron affected Ada's life and the life of her mother in later years was interesting. There were a lot of allegations against Byron in his life and after his death, but to me the most convincing piece of evidence that Annabella legitimately believed Byron to be in an incestuous relationship with Augusta was the insistence of Annabella and Ada that Ada's sons be kept away from her daughter.
All in all, I enjoyed delving into the lives of Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace as individuals free from Byron's overshadowing presence. Personally, I find both women to be fascinating and will be seeking out more information on both of them. As for Seymour, I think that she had good intentions with this biography and am willing to give her work another chance. She was certainly thorough in her coverage of the two subjects, though her interpretation of the source material, in my opinion, was flawed.
Where I took particular issue was in Seymour's framing of Lady Byron's written communications, which have often been used against her. Writing is a medium that undoubtedly allows for the most deliberate and calculated way of communicating, not easily tripped up by outside stressors as long as the writer engages in editing or basic self-censorship, and yet Seymour insists that Lady Byron's intent was always at odds with what she communicated through her writing. Honestly, that assertion defies belief.
Annabella Byron showed tremendous capacity for conveying exactly what she wanted through her written letters - her acute sensitivity to the way she was perceived made her an expert manipulator, capable of convincing just about anyone to do just about anything she wanted without even having to ask. Using the excuse that she was an oblivious little dum-dum who just couldn't figure out how to communicate what she meant through the written word as a way of excusing the times she was condescending or rude is ludicrous. She, like every human being, had her moments of being a total asshole, and making excuses for her doesn't undo that.
On that same note, Seymour makes assertions about other people's characters that are entirely unsupported by any evidence *I* have seen, and which she fails to provide anything to support. Specifically, I'm referring to her characterization of Augusta Leigh (Byron's sister and probable lover) as a calculating homewrecker who spent years convincing Byron he should stay estranged from Annabella, when in fact the opposite was true. Augusta Leigh frequently did her best to keep the more acidic sides of Byron and Annabella from each other in order to foster a reconciliation, because regardless of whether or not she was sleeping with her brother, she cared about both parties enough to want the best for them. Beyond that, Augusta Leigh was frankly a dumbass. She was described by her contemporaries as such. To imagine that she was pulling the strings to keep her brother, who even Seymour admits loved Annabella, away from his wife and daughter just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
Additionally, Seymour supplies and then ignores evidence that Annabella was frankly a vindictive sort of woman who held a grudge and cut people off with only the slightest of provocation - something that could be applied by her detractors to her absconding from her husband without a word about why she was leaving. Seymour lists no less than three people from Annabella's life (Lord Lovelace, her daughter's husband, the aforementioned Augusta Leigh, and a friend of hers) that she viciously cut off without them even comprehending what they had done to piss her off so much, but despite all of that Seymour prefers to frame Annabella as a lovely, generous woman who was loved by many and derided by a few posthumously in an attempt to amplify Byron by discrediting his wife. All of those things are true, but ignoring the former and amplifying the latter only makes Seymour's book come across as incomplete and biased to someone with further knowledge of the topic.
With that said, there was a lot of very interesting information in this book and as it is my first introduction to Ada Lovelace as an adult, I found it to be quite informative. Seeing the ways in which the scandalous breakup of Annabella and Byron affected Ada's life and the life of her mother in later years was interesting. There were a lot of allegations against Byron in his life and after his death, but to me the most convincing piece of evidence that Annabella legitimately believed Byron to be in an incestuous relationship with Augusta was the insistence of Annabella and Ada that Ada's sons be kept away from her daughter.
All in all, I enjoyed delving into the lives of Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace as individuals free from Byron's overshadowing presence. Personally, I find both women to be fascinating and will be seeking out more information on both of them. As for Seymour, I think that she had good intentions with this biography and am willing to give her work another chance. She was certainly thorough in her coverage of the two subjects, though her interpretation of the source material, in my opinion, was flawed.
July 23, 2022
The author covers the two women most connected to Lord Byron and examines his influence on them as well as their own philanthropic and scientific endeavors.
Annabella Millbanke was a much sought after young woman in London. Her intellect far surpassed her peers. Unfortunately this did not extend to love, and she was determined to find a rake and to reform him. Anyone who knew Byron knew that he would never allow himself to be reformed by anyone. Eventually the two married, she became cognizant of the fact that Byron had borne a child with his half sister, and his behavior grew so concerning ( to the extent that she needed an armed guard outside her bedroom door) that Annabella took their infant child Ada, and left. She never lost her affection for Byron even after he proceeded to commit adultery with a string of women.
Ada was a child who never really knew her father. She was given an excellent education and is looked at today as one of the founders of the modern computer. She married a good guy, had three children she ignored and eventually got hooked on gambling, went into debt, cheated on her husband, and died young. Her mother outlived her by many years, and knew both Florence Nightingale and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Unfortunately Stowe spilled the beans about Byron and his sister, getting the facts wrong, and sullied Annabella’s reputation. Annabella went on to become one of the leading philanthropists of her day, active in education and abolition.
Annabella Millbanke was a much sought after young woman in London. Her intellect far surpassed her peers. Unfortunately this did not extend to love, and she was determined to find a rake and to reform him. Anyone who knew Byron knew that he would never allow himself to be reformed by anyone. Eventually the two married, she became cognizant of the fact that Byron had borne a child with his half sister, and his behavior grew so concerning ( to the extent that she needed an armed guard outside her bedroom door) that Annabella took their infant child Ada, and left. She never lost her affection for Byron even after he proceeded to commit adultery with a string of women.
Ada was a child who never really knew her father. She was given an excellent education and is looked at today as one of the founders of the modern computer. She married a good guy, had three children she ignored and eventually got hooked on gambling, went into debt, cheated on her husband, and died young. Her mother outlived her by many years, and knew both Florence Nightingale and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Unfortunately Stowe spilled the beans about Byron and his sister, getting the facts wrong, and sullied Annabella’s reputation. Annabella went on to become one of the leading philanthropists of her day, active in education and abolition.
August 1, 2025
💡Annabella Milbanke, Byron’s brilliant and morally rigid wife, spends her life both haunted by and dedicated to reshaping his legacy.
💡Ada Lovelace, their daughter, mixes scientific genius with a romantic temperament—her story arcs from algorithmic insight to heartbreaking collapse.
💡Byron himself appears like a ghost at a Victorian dinner party—always present, always stirring the pot. (I HATE BYRON.)
The book reads like a 19th-century soap opera starring Lord Logic (Annabella), Lady Algorithm (Ada) and their absent celebrity husband/father whose mood swings come pre-encoded in verse. (I REPEAT, I HATE BYRON!!!)
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Lovelace & Annabella <3
But wait, let me repeat this once again!
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
💡Ada Lovelace, their daughter, mixes scientific genius with a romantic temperament—her story arcs from algorithmic insight to heartbreaking collapse.
💡Byron himself appears like a ghost at a Victorian dinner party—always present, always stirring the pot. (I HATE BYRON.)
The book reads like a 19th-century soap opera starring Lord Logic (Annabella), Lady Algorithm (Ada) and their absent celebrity husband/father whose mood swings come pre-encoded in verse. (I REPEAT, I HATE BYRON!!!)
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Lovelace & Annabella <3
But wait, let me repeat this once again!
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
I HATE BYRON.
February 17, 2023
As a teacher of the Romantics, I was always intrigued by the mystery of how Annabella Milbanke and Lord Byron ever became a couple and what transpired in their marriage. Byron's poetry also led me to wonder about both the fate of his daughter and the truth behind Astarte in his Manfrad. Miranda Seymour's In Byron's Wake clears up those questions. Seymour's book is thoroughly researched from letters, journals, histories, reviews, etc. of and by the vast spiderwork of players involved. Her Annabella and daughter Ada are revealed as complicated and intelligent women powerfully interconnected with social reform, art, and science. We also see them as human beings shaped and shaping early nineteenth-century and Victorian society. Their connections with scientists, artists, and social reformers of the era is stunning. I was especially impressed by Miranda's lively writing, which made me reluctant to put her book down. The 400+ pages flew by. A cracking good read.
October 9, 2025
NYT Notable Books 2019: 95/100
I'm slowly working my way through the end of the 2019 notable book list. Now I know better than to leave all the dense nonfiction books to the very end! This was a solid read overall. I appreciated that Seymour was true to her subject and focused very little on Byron himself. I find a lot of these biographies of famous men's wives end up focusing more on the men than on the women, but Byron barely factored in to the book. It felt like Seymour was covering a lot in a book and at times it got dense and hard to follow, or felt almost disconnected. I did like her use of sources to build out these women's lives and how everything came together.
I'm slowly working my way through the end of the 2019 notable book list. Now I know better than to leave all the dense nonfiction books to the very end! This was a solid read overall. I appreciated that Seymour was true to her subject and focused very little on Byron himself. I find a lot of these biographies of famous men's wives end up focusing more on the men than on the women, but Byron barely factored in to the book. It felt like Seymour was covering a lot in a book and at times it got dense and hard to follow, or felt almost disconnected. I did like her use of sources to build out these women's lives and how everything came together.
April 18, 2019
Well researched & explicitly recounted biography of Lord Byron's wife Annabella Milbanke and their daughter Ada Lovelace. Explains why Lady Byron left the marriage after a year: Byron's incestuous relationship with his half sister Augusta, which produced the daughter Medora; and gives insight into why Annabella refused to tell her side of the story. Annabella's silence left it to others to "reveal" & they made made her the villain. Both mother & daughter died of cancer; Ada was a genius in science & is credited with insight into early computers (she died in the 1840s).
August 25, 2019
Fascinating
The story of 2 of the women in Byron’s life, his wife and daughter, is of continuing interest. Our modern understanding of domestic violence might help us appreciate the challenges Annabelle felt herself finally unable to ensure, despite always loving her husband. And was Byron an early example of a curated life- a persona of being mad, bad and dangerous to know, that required ever more extremes to keep up. The short lives of Byron and his daughter also remind us how much they achieved in such short times.
The story of 2 of the women in Byron’s life, his wife and daughter, is of continuing interest. Our modern understanding of domestic violence might help us appreciate the challenges Annabelle felt herself finally unable to ensure, despite always loving her husband. And was Byron an early example of a curated life- a persona of being mad, bad and dangerous to know, that required ever more extremes to keep up. The short lives of Byron and his daughter also remind us how much they achieved in such short times.
May 29, 2025
As Seymour demonstrates, both characterizations are oversimplified, and the women behind them were more three-dimensional than their reputations suggest. While the man who most impacted their lives remains a celebrity, their legacies — both built around their relationship to him — have always been more complex and nuanced than their detractors, or their fans, believed.
-Rose Rankin
Read the full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...
-Rose Rankin
Read the full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...
December 9, 2018
It was a bit of a slog but can't say I didn't enjoy it over all. There was a wealth of, and some reviewer's have called it an over load of, details of everyday life, but that's the way Miranda Seymour wrote it. And when I was finished, I'm not sure what I would have cut that wouldn't have effected the pictured painted of the lives and times of these individuals. I believe I was left with a good idea of at least part of what Annabella Milbanke Byron and her daughter Ada were like.
January 16, 2020
Friend of Harriet Beecher Stowe & Florence Nightingale, abolitionist & educational reformer, Annabella Milbanke is best remembered for marrying Lord Byron at 20 & separating from him at 23. In between, she gave birth to his only legitimate child, famed mathematician Ada Byron Lovelace. Miranda Seymour offers a fascinating dual biography of this pair of accomplished women who never escaped the shadow of the handsome poet who was "mad, bad, & dangerous to know".
January 19, 2020
A Women-Centric Tale that Reads like a Novel
Bryon is an ancillary character in this beautifully written and very detailed history of Annabella and Ada, his wife and daughter. Though dense in its meticulous and well-researched tale, I had a hard time putting this book down. A recommended read for anyone interested in pioneering strong and intellectual women of the Victorian age.
Bryon is an ancillary character in this beautifully written and very detailed history of Annabella and Ada, his wife and daughter. Though dense in its meticulous and well-researched tale, I had a hard time putting this book down. A recommended read for anyone interested in pioneering strong and intellectual women of the Victorian age.
March 5, 2020
I didn't know much about Ada Lovelace prior to reading this, and knew nothing about her mother. There's a lot that is interesting here. But I think, given all of the wild rumours that surround Byron, the author was working extra hard for her details to be well documented and balanced, so it makes the book a bit of a slog in places.
February 10, 2020
It’s a chore to plow through this book. I wanted to read about Ada and her work on the earliest computer but more interesting were the parts about Annabelle who was certainly a much better person than her daughter.
May 11, 2020
An interesting read of two strong personalities. Mother and daughter are revealed through their letters. Life of the gentry in 19th century England was not easy. Titles but no money/cold mansions/gossip/and all those names that start with A!
January 8, 2024
An interesting read on the lives of Ada Lovelace & Annabella Milbanke. Ada was the daughter of Annabella Milbanke & Lord Bryon (the poet). Without Ada's & Charles Babbage's work we would not have the computers of today.
May 27, 2018
Well researched and informative.
May 19, 2019
3.5. Book is bogged down in academia. However, some fascinating stories here.
Want to read
September 8, 201999p on Amazon on 8th September 2019
December 27, 2019
Tediously detailed.
no-active-interest
March 19, 2020September 5, 2020
Well written with an incredible depth of research, Seymour gives Byron’s wife and daughter a nuanced and altogether human portrait.
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