Beppo: A Venetian Story

by Lord Byron (Creator)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Romanticism

68 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1818

About the author

George Gordon Byron (invariably known as Lord Byron), later Noel, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale FRS was a British poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. Amongst Byron's best-known works are the brief poems She Walks in Beauty, When We Two Parted, and So, we'll go no more a roving, in addition to the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential, both in the English-speaking world and beyond.

Byron's notabilty rests not only on his writings but also on his life, which featured upper-class living, numerous love affairs, debts, and separation. He was notably described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". Byron served as a regional leader of Italy's revolutionary organization, the Carbonari, in its struggle against Austria. He later travelled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died from a fever contracted while in Messolonghi in Greece.

Reviews

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few things I love more than Sassy Lord Byron! I love seeing him make fun of Southey, and take jabs at his exwife. It's like Real Housewives of the 1800s... God bless it! Beppo read like an early Don Juan, the reader can definitely sense the fresh wounds of his exile from England. This is one of Byron's many "I'll get the last laugh" satiric poems. If you haven't read Beppo, you should probably get on that.

[Dsqueenie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beppo doesn't have a Childe Harold moment where your emotions and the verse sing out in harmony, the words appearing almost grotesquely in your minds eye and capturing your imagination. Beppo is - despite not being that short - quite simple.

It's about a woman (who he decides to call Laura on a whim) whose husband disappears at sea. She takes a cultured Count as a "vice husband" and then one night her husband reappears. Lord Byron doesn't elaborate much more than than that. The length comes from his many digressions.

Apart from Laura Byron speaks about the English climate, "chilly" English women, how verse is more fashionable than prose and The Regent. If we as readers weren't already interested in the great Lord Byron's opinions these sections would be boring.

Beppo is good because Byron is a talented writer. Beppo written by any other writer would be considered simple and a bit, for lack of a better word, baggy.

[Anastasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
What was that about?

[Esmay · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 Stars!

[Mike Blackwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice bit of narrative verse that is more often about digressions than it is about the story being told. I found it charming. Gets me rearin' and roarin' to read Don Juan

[Flavia · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth,
And sounds as if it should be writ on satin,
With syllables which breathe of the sweet South"

Molto più interessanti le sue digressioni su Venezia, che la vicenda in sé.

[Felix]

Padding out the stats.

[Carlos Cristoforone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un embole enredado. La historia se resume en 1 pagina.

[Kira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one of my favorites by Lord Byron, but one that is still excellent

[Laura Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet. This is the first Byron work that I’ve read and I will definitely be reading more.

Also, the main character having the same name as me didn’t hurt.

[Ju Ribeiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first "real" Byron. Loved to read it - flows with pleasure.

[Débora · Rating 2 out of 5]

--