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Passion
They were the Romantic generation, famous and infamous, and in their short, extraordinary lives, they left a legacy of glamorous and often shocking legend. In PASSION the interwoven lives and vivid personalities of Byron, Shelley and Keats are explored through the eyes of the women who knew and loved them - scandalously, intensely and sometimes tragically.From the salons of the Whig nobles and the penury and vitality of Grub Street, to the beauty and corruption of Venice and the carrion field of Waterloo, PASSION presents the Romantic generation in a new and dramatic light - actors in a stormy history that unleashed the energies of the modern world.
544 pages, Hardcover
First published July 5, 2004
24 people are currently reading
1718 people want to read
About the author
Jude Morgan
19 books179 followersJude Morgan was born and brought up in Peterborough on the edge of the Fens and was a student on the University of East Anglia MA Course in Creative Writing under Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter.
A pseudonym used by Tim Wilson.
Also wrote under the names T.R. Wilson and Hannah March.
A pseudonym used by Tim Wilson.
Also wrote under the names T.R. Wilson and Hannah March.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
April 15, 2014
I've read a lot of historical fiction, and along the way I've encountered a variety of purposes behind undertaking such projects. For some, the "historical" part seems to be mere source material used to explore certain themes that may be best explored in an "alien" time and place. For others, it seems to be an amateur historian project where they offer their own humble, untrained opinions about various historical figures based on their research for the book. For still others, it seems to be pure fantasy wish-fulfillment (fan-fiction where they get to meet certain historical figures with their author-proxies and modern sensibilities or simply just enjoy being in pretty gowns and taking advantage of an idealized form of chivalry that women are meant to want.)
I've seen all of these things done with fun, flair and/or effectiveness by various authors. Shakespeare is a great example of the first one, Susanna Clarke is a fabulous example of the second, Stoppard's Arcadia is a good example of all three happening at once. I think that the second one is harder to do in a not-annoying way, and the third one is generally doomed from the start without the person being absurdedly overqualified to begin with.
This one seemed like it belongs in the second category, with a little bit of the third thrown in. When taking on this particular topic, you're going to have to have to make some decisions about what you think happened- there are a lot of rumors and second-guesses and arguments and things that have pretty much been debunked but are great stories anyway. So this will end up being a historical argument of some sort- whether or not you make a case as such. I generally find this incredibly irritating, unless the author has something new or different to say that's backed up with solid interpretative analysis. And Morgan made some not-at-all ambiguous choices that I disagreed with- . But generally they were few and far between.
For the most part, Morgan did a solid job using the generally accepted evidence and widely told stories about these guys to create well-rounded and believable characters who I could believe got up on Monday and did the dishes, rather than swanning around being Great Men and Tragic Ladies all the time. That's an accomplishment to begin with. Byron as an awkward teenager was great, for instance, and he did a fantastic job showing what a swine Godwin was, especially after he lost Mary Wollstonecraft.
I also gave Morgan a lot of credit for the time he took to really sit down and think about the whys and hows of how these fantastic historical events came to be. He is particularly interested in what it would look like as each individual character thought through their decisions. I was especially impressed with his kindness towards characters who don't generally receive a lot of kindness from popular history: especially the women around Byron, and MOST especially Caroline Lamb. Instead of the full-on bitch-crazy obsessive freak otherworldly harpy she's generally shamed on for being, Morgan makes the best possible attempt to understand her as far as it is possible to do. When it is no longer possible, he shows us what it was like inside of her head (as insane as that is) or gives us reports on her activities second and third hand. He also never forgets to contrast the consequences for her and for Byron of their affair, and how dearly she paid for everything. He also gives a somewhat sympathetic hearing to Claire (as much as she deserves, honestly- even I have my limits with Claire, as shitty a deal as she got), a really lovely one for Augusta, and even an I-understand-at-a-distance one for Byron's wife.
As for the great men themselves: Byron comes off better than he probably deserves in most situations, Shelley, to Morgan's credit, comes off exactly the way he does in every other history book I've read on him (if slightly more sympathetic, particularly in the matter of his first wife), and Keats... well Morgan didn't scruple to make his memory slightly more human, rather than the fallen angel that he is typically painted.
His prose actually started off rather stiff. The first hundred pages or so was pure exposition, a lot of which involved that annoying thing where twelve-year-old girls analyze politics accurately and sound prescient for no reason. But once we got out of the girlhood section (which he seemed to know was necessary for character motivation but didn't have a lot to say about), he did some unusual things with the prose- he liked to change from third person to first person throughout, especially when dealing with Caroline Lamb (she got the majority of the first-person POV interludes). He liked to imply a lot through undescribed and shades-of-meaning dialogue, especially when it came to the possibly sexual side of things, which I thought appropriate for the period. For the most part the prose itself was rather straightforward, plain narration, but there were some individually lovely lines that peeked out throughout to raise it above the norm, and the overall effect was still strong.
I found my attention wandering after the sailing accident, however. This was the 'wrap-it-up' section and it started to read like a point-by-point dramatization of the history we know of some of these people: now with more dialogue and commentary. There was less than careful attention shown here and the book kind of just... ended as soon as he got to the 'end' of the timeline. There was no real send-off, just petering out when he felt his responsibility was ended.
The middle 250 or so pages, however, were perfectly pleasing reading experience that offered a lot of unusual kindness towards the historical figures involved, done with solid prose, using excellent (if well-worn) material. I wasn't blown away by it (which may have something to do with the fact that I have read this story so many times before), but I think that he did a good job with it and I would have no hesitation recommending it to anyone interested in the period.
If you are looking for more of a history, or if reading this has fueled your appetite to know more, then I strongly recommend Young Romantics. It's a well-done look at precisely the same thing, leading you through almost exactly the same episodes in the same order, without the "fiction" part. The great thing about this source material is that you really don't need to embellish it or narrate it too much to make it a good story- it does that well enough on its own.
I've seen all of these things done with fun, flair and/or effectiveness by various authors. Shakespeare is a great example of the first one, Susanna Clarke is a fabulous example of the second, Stoppard's Arcadia is a good example of all three happening at once. I think that the second one is harder to do in a not-annoying way, and the third one is generally doomed from the start without the person being absurdedly overqualified to begin with.
This one seemed like it belongs in the second category, with a little bit of the third thrown in. When taking on this particular topic, you're going to have to have to make some decisions about what you think happened- there are a lot of rumors and second-guesses and arguments and things that have pretty much been debunked but are great stories anyway. So this will end up being a historical argument of some sort- whether or not you make a case as such. I generally find this incredibly irritating, unless the author has something new or different to say that's backed up with solid interpretative analysis. And Morgan made some not-at-all ambiguous choices that I disagreed with- . But generally they were few and far between.
For the most part, Morgan did a solid job using the generally accepted evidence and widely told stories about these guys to create well-rounded and believable characters who I could believe got up on Monday and did the dishes, rather than swanning around being Great Men and Tragic Ladies all the time. That's an accomplishment to begin with. Byron as an awkward teenager was great, for instance, and he did a fantastic job showing what a swine Godwin was, especially after he lost Mary Wollstonecraft.
I also gave Morgan a lot of credit for the time he took to really sit down and think about the whys and hows of how these fantastic historical events came to be. He is particularly interested in what it would look like as each individual character thought through their decisions. I was especially impressed with his kindness towards characters who don't generally receive a lot of kindness from popular history: especially the women around Byron, and MOST especially Caroline Lamb. Instead of the full-on bitch-crazy obsessive freak otherworldly harpy she's generally shamed on for being, Morgan makes the best possible attempt to understand her as far as it is possible to do. When it is no longer possible, he shows us what it was like inside of her head (as insane as that is) or gives us reports on her activities second and third hand. He also never forgets to contrast the consequences for her and for Byron of their affair, and how dearly she paid for everything. He also gives a somewhat sympathetic hearing to Claire (as much as she deserves, honestly- even I have my limits with Claire, as shitty a deal as she got), a really lovely one for Augusta, and even an I-understand-at-a-distance one for Byron's wife.
As for the great men themselves: Byron comes off better than he probably deserves in most situations, Shelley, to Morgan's credit, comes off exactly the way he does in every other history book I've read on him (if slightly more sympathetic, particularly in the matter of his first wife), and Keats... well Morgan didn't scruple to make his memory slightly more human, rather than the fallen angel that he is typically painted.
His prose actually started off rather stiff. The first hundred pages or so was pure exposition, a lot of which involved that annoying thing where twelve-year-old girls analyze politics accurately and sound prescient for no reason. But once we got out of the girlhood section (which he seemed to know was necessary for character motivation but didn't have a lot to say about), he did some unusual things with the prose- he liked to change from third person to first person throughout, especially when dealing with Caroline Lamb (she got the majority of the first-person POV interludes). He liked to imply a lot through undescribed and shades-of-meaning dialogue, especially when it came to the possibly sexual side of things, which I thought appropriate for the period. For the most part the prose itself was rather straightforward, plain narration, but there were some individually lovely lines that peeked out throughout to raise it above the norm, and the overall effect was still strong.
I found my attention wandering after the sailing accident, however. This was the 'wrap-it-up' section and it started to read like a point-by-point dramatization of the history we know of some of these people: now with more dialogue and commentary. There was less than careful attention shown here and the book kind of just... ended as soon as he got to the 'end' of the timeline. There was no real send-off, just petering out when he felt his responsibility was ended.
The middle 250 or so pages, however, were perfectly pleasing reading experience that offered a lot of unusual kindness towards the historical figures involved, done with solid prose, using excellent (if well-worn) material. I wasn't blown away by it (which may have something to do with the fact that I have read this story so many times before), but I think that he did a good job with it and I would have no hesitation recommending it to anyone interested in the period.
If you are looking for more of a history, or if reading this has fueled your appetite to know more, then I strongly recommend Young Romantics. It's a well-done look at precisely the same thing, leading you through almost exactly the same episodes in the same order, without the "fiction" part. The great thing about this source material is that you really don't need to embellish it or narrate it too much to make it a good story- it does that well enough on its own.
July 23, 2021
4.5 to 5 stars. A powerful, intense and somewhat dark read, based on the extraordinary lives of an extraordinary group of people. Historical fiction, but it has an atmosphere of verisimilitude. The writer takes you inside the minds and emotions of the cast of characters in a very believable manner.
This is a long and meaty book. As it follows the paths of its various characters, the POV jumps and changes. It's always clear who is whom, however, and whose head you are inside. It abounds with historical facts and references, which to my (somewhat limited) knowledge seem authoritative and believable. But the writing is good, and it doesn't become bogged down in a mire of historical detail.
The focus is very much on the brilliant women who loved these fiercely passionate and eccentric geniuses. Mary Wollstonecraft, writer of 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women', and her relationship with the radical philosopher Godwin; their daughter Mary, who runs off with the poet Shelley as a teen and goes on to write 'Frankenstein'; Augusta Leigh who the author believes had an incestuous relationship with her half-brother Byron (still debated by historians); Caroline Lamb, (whose husband William Lamb later became Prime Minister of England) and her OTT obsession with Byron; Fanny Brawne, who fell deeply in love with the doomed poet Keats who died so young of tuberculosis.
Other fascinating characters enter the picture, such as Mary Shelley's step-sister Claire who lived with Shelley and Mary, in what some believed was a kind of menage-a-trois. Claire had a daughter by Byron (who died as a young girl). Annabella Milbanke, a strict and moral woman and a talented mathematician, whose marriage to Byron ended in a bitter split. (Their daughter Ada (Lovelace) also became a talented mathematician, and she was credited with later developing an early form of "computer programming".)
The lives of theses characters were intertwined in interesting and complicated ways, but the author does an excellent job of following the threads of their stories and making each narrative clear to readers. It is a dark story. There are suicides, deaths of beloved children, premature deaths of some of the protagonists or their partners, bitter family feuds, unhappy marriages, adultery, jealousy. But there are also love affairs, deep friendships, passionate and radical beliefs about society and humanity and its betterment, and brilliant works of art created by these incredible writers. These people experienced life intensely, and the reader sees the gamut of human emotion, from the prosaic and everyday to the extremes of beauty or grief.
The extraordinary series of events that befall some of the characters would be scoffed at in a book based purely on a fictional story - surely that could not all happen to one person? But it did, and they had to deal with it.
For readers who love the English Romantic poets (as I do), or who are interested in life in early nineteenth century England and Europe, (as I am), this book is a terrific read, and I highly recommend. As a reader you do need to 'gird your loins' a little - it's a dark read in some ways, and you need to brace yourself for the shocking experiences of some of the protagonists. It's not a sweet, light, rose-coloured read. But it's powerful and memorable. Well worth the read IMO.
This is a long and meaty book. As it follows the paths of its various characters, the POV jumps and changes. It's always clear who is whom, however, and whose head you are inside. It abounds with historical facts and references, which to my (somewhat limited) knowledge seem authoritative and believable. But the writing is good, and it doesn't become bogged down in a mire of historical detail.
The focus is very much on the brilliant women who loved these fiercely passionate and eccentric geniuses. Mary Wollstonecraft, writer of 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women', and her relationship with the radical philosopher Godwin; their daughter Mary, who runs off with the poet Shelley as a teen and goes on to write 'Frankenstein'; Augusta Leigh who the author believes had an incestuous relationship with her half-brother Byron (still debated by historians); Caroline Lamb, (whose husband William Lamb later became Prime Minister of England) and her OTT obsession with Byron; Fanny Brawne, who fell deeply in love with the doomed poet Keats who died so young of tuberculosis.
Other fascinating characters enter the picture, such as Mary Shelley's step-sister Claire who lived with Shelley and Mary, in what some believed was a kind of menage-a-trois. Claire had a daughter by Byron (who died as a young girl). Annabella Milbanke, a strict and moral woman and a talented mathematician, whose marriage to Byron ended in a bitter split. (Their daughter Ada (Lovelace) also became a talented mathematician, and she was credited with later developing an early form of "computer programming".)
The lives of theses characters were intertwined in interesting and complicated ways, but the author does an excellent job of following the threads of their stories and making each narrative clear to readers. It is a dark story. There are suicides, deaths of beloved children, premature deaths of some of the protagonists or their partners, bitter family feuds, unhappy marriages, adultery, jealousy. But there are also love affairs, deep friendships, passionate and radical beliefs about society and humanity and its betterment, and brilliant works of art created by these incredible writers. These people experienced life intensely, and the reader sees the gamut of human emotion, from the prosaic and everyday to the extremes of beauty or grief.
The extraordinary series of events that befall some of the characters would be scoffed at in a book based purely on a fictional story - surely that could not all happen to one person? But it did, and they had to deal with it.
For readers who love the English Romantic poets (as I do), or who are interested in life in early nineteenth century England and Europe, (as I am), this book is a terrific read, and I highly recommend. As a reader you do need to 'gird your loins' a little - it's a dark read in some ways, and you need to brace yourself for the shocking experiences of some of the protagonists. It's not a sweet, light, rose-coloured read. But it's powerful and memorable. Well worth the read IMO.
June 24, 2007
This book is done a great disservice by its cover, which makes it look like a standard bodice-ripper. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that's not what this is. In fact, my dad was looking to buy me books for Christmas and he told me he'd seen this in the store, but the cover made him think that this wasn't the book I wanted. But it was! A fascinating and incredibly *full* book about the women in the Byron-Shelley circle. Very well-written, I loved the structure and the ways in which the narrative voices shifted, from close limited POVs to sections written in the style of the time in which the book is set to parts where certain characters talked directly to the reader. An excellent look at the strictures placed on the lives of these women, how they defied them, and the effects on that defiance on the rest of their lives. My favorite portions, I think, were the parts about Fanny Brawne, partly because I've always found the life of Keats so sad, but also because in many ways Fanny is portrayed as the most normal or ordinary woman -- no great talent or acts of insanity or desperation inspired by love that would cause a commotion -- but for all that, perhaps because of that and her own understanding of herself and her life, I found her story the most affecting. Wonderful.
August 5, 2021
I was totally involved in this big novel about the women who loved the romantic poets, Byron, Shelley and Keats. The prologue tells the story of Mary Wollstonecraft, enough material for a book in itself and perhaps why for me this novel wasn’t a 5star read. Because it jumps between the lives of quite different women and there is just so much to tell from Lady Caroline Lamb (Byron’s lover) and Augusta Leigh (Byron’s half sister), to Mary Shelley and her stepsister Claire Claremont and finally Fanny Brawne, Keats’ love. The story of Keats and Fanny is the saddest and sweetest, and also the smallest part of the book as he dies so young (well all three die young, but Keats is only 25). Its a thoroughly enjoyable read, so much drama and it’s pretty much unputdownable.
March 13, 2014
Historical fiction told from the points of view of women who loved three of the most famous Romatnic poets: Byron, Shelley, and Keats. It hews very closely to the known facts, revealing opinions and personalities so unobtrusively and naturally that the prodigious amount of research Morgan must have done is invisible. Beautifully told, with natural dialog and evocative imagery and metaphors. Impressively, I came away from this novel feeling strongly for each of the historical personages, even Byron who I usually dislike. I really wish this had been several equally long books, instead of just one: I would have loved an entire novel of Fanny Brawne and Keats teasing and sighing over each other, for instance.
May 28, 2011
The difference between genre fiction and literary fiction, Stephen King says, is that genre fiction is about ordinary people in extraordinary situations. Literary fiction, however, is about extraordinary people in ordinary situations. This is a definition I like because it is both how I read and how I write. But what happens when extraordinary people live through extraordinary times? One result is Passion: A Novel of the Romantic Poets by Jude Morgan.
Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Jude Morgan introduces us to the Romantic poets, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats as seen through the eyes of the women who loved them, and weaves a seductive, intriguing narrative thay incorporates fact with rumor and imagination all set in a frame of the times in which they lived and the society they took such great joy in defying.
The story opens with the life of the early feminist Mary Woolstoncraft who was the mother of Mary Godwin, the second wife of Shelley and the author of “Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus”. Morgan takes his time developing the society and the historical context in which Mary Godwin, and her young step-sister Jane (she later changed her name to Claire Calirmont), who became one of Byron's lovers, were born and lived. We are also introduced to Augusta Leigh, Lord Byron's older half-sister, Lady Caroline Lamb, Byron's most notorious mistress, and Fanny Brawne, who would fall in love with Keats in the last years of his brief life.
The story is told through multiple, shifting perspectives and, I'll confess, it becomes a little difficult to know whose eyes we are seeing through at times but once I adjusted to this device, it was easy enough to be aware of it and adjust along with the narrative. Great detail is paid not only to the politics of the era but also the social customs and the philosophical ideals of the various characters. There are times when this becomes a bit much but far more times when it is absolutely fascinating. Gradually, Morgan builds a complex tapestry of connections and inter-connections that, much to my amazement, makes sense of the clash of temperaments and emotional entanglements in which this wildly disparate group of people lived.
Lord Byron was, unsurprisingly, the most colorful character – in the story as he was, doubtless, in life. His affairs with women like Caroline Lamb and Claire Clairmont caused him no end of aggravation and his brief marriage to Annabella were tempestuous but, in Morgan's story anyway, the one great love of his life is his half-sister Augusta, the married mother of seven children, who never found anything but love and compassion for her notorious brother.
From the minute Mary Godwin meets the dreamy, idealistic, liberal Shelley she loves everything about him. His generosity of spirit and commitment to absolute freedom both attracts and frustrates her especially when her step-sister turns to him when her affair with Byron comes to crashing end. Through their life together in England and then in Italy, Mary adores Shelley and tries to emulate his ideals but, especially after the deaths of two of their children and a miscarriage, she blames herself for not being evolved enough for his idealism.
John Keats, whose very brief life does not leave a lot of room for story, appears late in the over 500 pages of the book but his love for Fanny Brawne, and hers for him, is sweet, poignant and tragic.
Though all the particulars of the lives of these people can be easily obtained just by going to Wikipedia, Jude Morgan has brought them all vibrantly to life filled with emotions, thoughts and struggles to which contemporary readers can easily relate. This is an extraordinary book – a bit long in places and occasionally hard to follow – but well worth the effort.
Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Jude Morgan introduces us to the Romantic poets, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats as seen through the eyes of the women who loved them, and weaves a seductive, intriguing narrative thay incorporates fact with rumor and imagination all set in a frame of the times in which they lived and the society they took such great joy in defying.
The story opens with the life of the early feminist Mary Woolstoncraft who was the mother of Mary Godwin, the second wife of Shelley and the author of “Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus”. Morgan takes his time developing the society and the historical context in which Mary Godwin, and her young step-sister Jane (she later changed her name to Claire Calirmont), who became one of Byron's lovers, were born and lived. We are also introduced to Augusta Leigh, Lord Byron's older half-sister, Lady Caroline Lamb, Byron's most notorious mistress, and Fanny Brawne, who would fall in love with Keats in the last years of his brief life.
The story is told through multiple, shifting perspectives and, I'll confess, it becomes a little difficult to know whose eyes we are seeing through at times but once I adjusted to this device, it was easy enough to be aware of it and adjust along with the narrative. Great detail is paid not only to the politics of the era but also the social customs and the philosophical ideals of the various characters. There are times when this becomes a bit much but far more times when it is absolutely fascinating. Gradually, Morgan builds a complex tapestry of connections and inter-connections that, much to my amazement, makes sense of the clash of temperaments and emotional entanglements in which this wildly disparate group of people lived.
Lord Byron was, unsurprisingly, the most colorful character – in the story as he was, doubtless, in life. His affairs with women like Caroline Lamb and Claire Clairmont caused him no end of aggravation and his brief marriage to Annabella were tempestuous but, in Morgan's story anyway, the one great love of his life is his half-sister Augusta, the married mother of seven children, who never found anything but love and compassion for her notorious brother.
From the minute Mary Godwin meets the dreamy, idealistic, liberal Shelley she loves everything about him. His generosity of spirit and commitment to absolute freedom both attracts and frustrates her especially when her step-sister turns to him when her affair with Byron comes to crashing end. Through their life together in England and then in Italy, Mary adores Shelley and tries to emulate his ideals but, especially after the deaths of two of their children and a miscarriage, she blames herself for not being evolved enough for his idealism.
John Keats, whose very brief life does not leave a lot of room for story, appears late in the over 500 pages of the book but his love for Fanny Brawne, and hers for him, is sweet, poignant and tragic.
Though all the particulars of the lives of these people can be easily obtained just by going to Wikipedia, Jude Morgan has brought them all vibrantly to life filled with emotions, thoughts and struggles to which contemporary readers can easily relate. This is an extraordinary book – a bit long in places and occasionally hard to follow – but well worth the effort.
February 15, 2020
Passion: A Novel of the Romantic Poets is as the name suggests a telling of the story of three romantic poets—Byron, Shelley, and Keats, but with a difference. It traces their lives or segments of their lives through the eyes of and their interactions with the women they loved—Mary Shelley, Augusta Leigh and Lady Caroline Lamb, and Fanny Brawne. Starting with the story of Mary Wollestonecraft and the birth of Mary Shelley, we get a look into the four women’s childhoods, their meetings with the poets, and the lives of the poets, till their (the poets’) deaths—all of whom died young.
This was a mixed experience for me in the sense that since we are reading their stories from the points of views of the women who loved them, the focus is largely on these aspects of their lives (including the women’s jealousies and insecurities) while I felt I would have liked more of a look into their works as well. We get some glimpses of course into their thoughts, like into Shelley’s views on vegetarianism, atheism, and such, Keats’ struggles with recognition, but I felt I would have liked more. But looking at how the book is structured and how the stories play out, one realises that it is just right, rather apt from the perspective of what the author was doing. In that sense, Byron is someone we see most of throughout the book, partly because we look at the lives of both Augusta Leigh and Lady Caroline Lamb, as well as since he meets and interacts with Mary and Percy Shelley, and Claire Clairmont as well, and indirectly with Keats, though not Fanny Brawne. Shelley is next in terms of the time we spend with him, but he comes across as the most elusive, in the sense that one never really feels like one gets to know him at all. Keats of course we see the least but still I felt we understood him better than may be Shelley. All the poets had their shares of troubles, Byron never feeling settled, Shelley with his disagreements with his father, and Keats both with recognition and his and his family’s health. Alongside we also meet others like Coleridge, William Godwin, and Leigh Hunt (who I couldn’t help think of as Skimpole though he wasn’t so much that). This was a very good read but still I guess different from what I expected.
This was a mixed experience for me in the sense that since we are reading their stories from the points of views of the women who loved them, the focus is largely on these aspects of their lives (including the women’s jealousies and insecurities) while I felt I would have liked more of a look into their works as well. We get some glimpses of course into their thoughts, like into Shelley’s views on vegetarianism, atheism, and such, Keats’ struggles with recognition, but I felt I would have liked more. But looking at how the book is structured and how the stories play out, one realises that it is just right, rather apt from the perspective of what the author was doing. In that sense, Byron is someone we see most of throughout the book, partly because we look at the lives of both Augusta Leigh and Lady Caroline Lamb, as well as since he meets and interacts with Mary and Percy Shelley, and Claire Clairmont as well, and indirectly with Keats, though not Fanny Brawne. Shelley is next in terms of the time we spend with him, but he comes across as the most elusive, in the sense that one never really feels like one gets to know him at all. Keats of course we see the least but still I felt we understood him better than may be Shelley. All the poets had their shares of troubles, Byron never feeling settled, Shelley with his disagreements with his father, and Keats both with recognition and his and his family’s health. Alongside we also meet others like Coleridge, William Godwin, and Leigh Hunt (who I couldn’t help think of as Skimpole though he wasn’t so much that). This was a very good read but still I guess different from what I expected.
August 20, 2008
This book is excellent and I couldn't put it down. The novel is really about the lives of the women in the lives of the Romantic Poets--Mary Godwin Shelley, Claire Clairmont, Lady Caroline Lamb, Augusta Byron Leigh, Annabella Byron, & Fanny Brawne. The book actually begins with a preface that summarizes the life of Mary Wollstoncraft, the mother of Mary Godwin Shelley. Then the author describes the childhoods of the women who would grow up to be wives and lovers of the Romantic Poets--Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. The book then chronicles the intense, tempestuous, dramatic lives of these women as adults as they try to work out who they are in their pretty restrictive society and who they are in relationship to the poets. These people were fascinating, though tragic, and I enjoyed reading about them very much. I am also inspired to re-read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and pick up the poetry of Byron, Shelley and Keats which I haven't really looked at since college. If you like well written historical novels with larger-than-life people, this is definitely a book you will enjoy.
August 31, 2013
4 1/2 stars. I enjoyed this book a great deal, but I kind of expected to, considering it is pretty much tailor made for me. Well written historical fiction with interesting characters is my guilty pleasure, and a British setting (totally unrepentant Anglophile here) is my equivalent of chocolate shavings on top the cupcake. So I would have snatched this book up even if it wasn't centered around the three young romantic poets, and my absolute favorite literary period. I know quite a bit about the Romantics, and Jude Morgan's characters seemed very authentic to me, her characterization spot on. My only (totally biased, selfish)complaint is that so much of the book focuses on Byron and the Shelleys, leaving a much smaller segment for Keats (A.K.A the literary love of my life.) Still, I loved it, and all the young Romantics were fascinating individuals, so the novel is a wonderful read.
April 26, 2023
I remember loving this book but it was many years ago that I read it!
Ah what the heck - 5 stars for the fact that almost 20 years ago I still think of the book.
Ah what the heck - 5 stars for the fact that almost 20 years ago I still think of the book.
November 13, 2022
“You will find in the end, my dear friend, that there is nothing more oppressive than freedom.”
Phenomenal!
It is a multi-biography. You will meet poets, philosophers, writers. But most of all you will meet women who are often forgotten. But without those women many famous, great men would be someone else maybe would be simply ordinary men.
“The only thing worse than constantly seeing what you can't have is constantly seeing what you must have.”
Magnificent!
For the last week I have lived with Caroline, Mary, Fanny and Augusta. They were my friends, my best friends. I was worried about them, I was happy with them, I was sad with them. In this moment I can't imagine that I (in some way) lost them. But it isn't the whole truth, they will be with me forever.
“It is very hard, I know, when you're young, to remember that there is such a thing as the rest of your life.”
Authentic!
Although, it is a historical fiction, Jude Morgan described the world, people, places so really that one can believe that that could be for real. Morgan took historical facts and made a masterpiece.
“The world was a broken mirror, fractured into impossibilities.”
Wonderful!
When I finished the book I sat with the book in my hands for a long time. Like I wanted to stay with them longer. I wanted to talk to them. It would be amazing. I would dream about it.
“But it only passes through her mind, and then, like a dusty book consigned to a shelf, it joins the vast sad library of things left unsaid.”
Genuine!
Morgan is a great human expert. The characters aren't bad or good. They are complicated. They have bright and dark sides of soul / heart. And they change with time.
“I scarcely possess myself at all it seems to me - as if my self was mortgaged long ago - to whom I know not - the higher spirits, I would hope - but it may be, alas, the Devil. I pray not. But it would explain a good deal.”
Grand!
Morgan (through this book) asked many big and small questions. Some are philosophical, some about nature of existence, some about what means to be self. Reading it was like a life lesson.
“How childish lovers can seem - perhaps that is why love is so alarming, it reduces us to children again, little and vulnerable and powerless in a great world we do not understand.”
One could write pages about this book. About memorable characters, a fascinating plot, a rich historical background. About wisdom in this novel.
And of course about how beautiful written is this book. You find here not only an ordinary narrative but also parts with confidences (in the first person) and parts written as a drama.
But the truth is that nothing will explain how good is this book. Just read it!
“There is the everyday truth of things, and there is the ideal. We must somehow live between them.”
July 14, 2016
This is an extraordinary novel. Written with astonishing delicacy, extremely well documented, it perfectly fits anecdotes into fiction as it blends fiction into history. Morgan's capacity to give a unique voice to each of the historical personalities the reader finds in this story is sign of very good writing. I am grateful that somebody has given voice, even if it is through a fictionalisation (although, I insist, this is very well documented and I would invite Romanticism fans to read it -with exceptions- as a biography) to the women who have suffered, for centuries, being disregarded and relegated to a second plane. This novel is a thing of beauty, complete, excellent, outstanding. Read it.
November 3, 2010
AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING. Morgan puts you in the place of the four women who loved the romantic poets. You feel like you are in their places as you read, and see their men from their perspectives. Morgan's style of writing is evocative and beautiful. I admire the writing. Fantastic read for anyone interested in the Regency and the great poets of the age. Well researched, historically accurate. A MUST READ.
April 10, 2009
Lush and gorgeous and so entertaining--a truly perfect pick if you're interested in the Romantic poets. This is the second book I've read now by Jude Morgan (after Indiscretion) and they were both fabulous in completely different ways--I'm definitely going to be seeking out more from this author.
July 17, 2017
Let me start off by saying I love this book, but I only gave it 4 stars because of
1. It's incredibly misleading cover.
2. The fact that it feels like it took a long time for the actual story to get started.
3. The 600 pages which is really unnecessary. There could have been at least 200-300 pages scraped from this book. It took me so long to completely finish reading this book and I just feel like it should not have taken me so long.
4. It's shifting perspective. I liked the fact that there were many perspectives, but the shifting aspect created confusion and eventually I felt like all of these POVs were too blended together.
This is a story of the women who loved Romantic poets Byron, Shelley and Keats. I find it interesting to learn about the women in the poets' lives since it helps me gain more insight on the men. However, this book went much deeper than that. This story helped me understand the importance of these women and that although it may not seem like it, their lives are just as important to think about when learning about these poets. Although this is historical fiction, I feel like I have learned a lot about these people that helps me understand them and their work better.
The story itself is really interesting. Truthfully, there are many stories in this book that somehow intertwine and work together beautifully. The beginning felt a little slow for me as I already stated, but my favorite part was its middle. That's where I felt the book was at its strongest point. Towards the end it started to slow down again, and although it never ceased to capture my attention, I do feel the story dragged on a little too long for my taste. But I love the Romantics and this book helped me learn a lot about them. I enjoyed the research Morgan put into this story, and I think the way he incorporated all of the woman's voices is fantastic. It is especially good knowing that he is a male author. Augusta and Byron's story is my favorite but I am partial since Byron is my favorite Romantic. Overall I am glad that I took the time to get to know this story and I think if you like to learn about Romanticism in general, you will really enjoy this book.
1. It's incredibly misleading cover.
2. The fact that it feels like it took a long time for the actual story to get started.
3. The 600 pages which is really unnecessary. There could have been at least 200-300 pages scraped from this book. It took me so long to completely finish reading this book and I just feel like it should not have taken me so long.
4. It's shifting perspective. I liked the fact that there were many perspectives, but the shifting aspect created confusion and eventually I felt like all of these POVs were too blended together.
This is a story of the women who loved Romantic poets Byron, Shelley and Keats. I find it interesting to learn about the women in the poets' lives since it helps me gain more insight on the men. However, this book went much deeper than that. This story helped me understand the importance of these women and that although it may not seem like it, their lives are just as important to think about when learning about these poets. Although this is historical fiction, I feel like I have learned a lot about these people that helps me understand them and their work better.
The story itself is really interesting. Truthfully, there are many stories in this book that somehow intertwine and work together beautifully. The beginning felt a little slow for me as I already stated, but my favorite part was its middle. That's where I felt the book was at its strongest point. Towards the end it started to slow down again, and although it never ceased to capture my attention, I do feel the story dragged on a little too long for my taste. But I love the Romantics and this book helped me learn a lot about them. I enjoyed the research Morgan put into this story, and I think the way he incorporated all of the woman's voices is fantastic. It is especially good knowing that he is a male author. Augusta and Byron's story is my favorite but I am partial since Byron is my favorite Romantic. Overall I am glad that I took the time to get to know this story and I think if you like to learn about Romanticism in general, you will really enjoy this book.
June 9, 2018
The brightest star in this constellation is Mary Shelley. Her life, amongst all the Romantic poets and their followers, burns the brightest and longest, and with the most suppressed rage and spite. She began her marital life at a ridiculously young age; AND she outlived her husband and his friends. And thus, because Mary kept the bulk of written records in her possession, and because her female relatives weren't much interested in record-keeping, it's simply the easiest process to make this novel about Mary.
It's an amazing novel. It's alive and breathing, and now we're all living in the early 1800s. It's really not so bad. Get yourself involved in the middle-class lifestyle (Yes, the middle class DID exist in London in the early 1800s; and St. Giles-in-the-Fields Church was actually in a Field, yes, a nice rural area outside the hustle and bustle of cosmopolitan London.) How pleasant. Also Hampstead Heath is rural too.
Well these days, nothing is rural anymore, so stop asking!!
It's an amazing novel. It's alive and breathing, and now we're all living in the early 1800s. It's really not so bad. Get yourself involved in the middle-class lifestyle (Yes, the middle class DID exist in London in the early 1800s; and St. Giles-in-the-Fields Church was actually in a Field, yes, a nice rural area outside the hustle and bustle of cosmopolitan London.) How pleasant. Also Hampstead Heath is rural too.
Well these days, nothing is rural anymore, so stop asking!!
April 22, 2013
I always hesitate to start a Jude Morgan novel. I hesitate for many reasons: because his idiosyncratic voice will invade my imagination, changing my own writing for some time; because I know that the depth and breadth of his historical vision will require a greater reading effort on my part (this is no light historical mystery I can finish in a day or two) and because I know that ultimately, when I turn the last page, it will be impossible to choose the next book I want to read. Nothing will measure up.
Passion is the third Morgan novel I've read after first discovering his book Charlotte and Emily about the Brontes and then buying a Kindle edition of The Secret Life of William Shakespeare when it hadn't been published yet in the U.S. I loved both of those books but according to the reader's guide in the back of my edition, Passion was Morgan's dream project that he worked on after completing some light Regency romances mimicking Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. For lack of a better word, Morgan's passion for the topic definitely comes through here.
Some readers will almost certainly be turned off by this book and Morgan's writing style. Morgan writes at the pace of life. Readers looking for a traditional narrative - a beginning, middle and end or a rise, fall and return will not find any familiar structures here. People just live their lives and when you close the book, you feel as though their stories with the poets they loved have come to an end but the women are still off living their lives.
Morgan has an incredibly unique writing style. In the space of one chapter you can find a range of forms - from a monologue to a scene written in the format of a play (just dialogue and stage directions) to a Jane Austen pastiche that openly borrows and rewrites some of her most famous opening lines. There are even times when the narration switches from past to present tense and then back again and from first to third person and then back again. Writers beware - this is incredibly tricky stuff to pull off. Most of the time, Morgan succeeds and it's rare when one of the tricks in his toolbox turns into a gimmick.
The way Morgan brings to life the language and feel and texture of the time is truly incredible and the sense of depth and breadth in even minor characters is an incredible accomplishment. I'm not even interested in Regency England but I was there, I felt it - I was in the carriages and the rented houses and the ballrooms. I knew each and every woman just by the way she spoke and saw the world. They really do exist apart from and alongside the men - their perceptions are given more room than the writing of Ode to a Nightingale or Childe Harold. Now some readers may feel cheated as the subtitle claims this is "a novel of the romantic poets" not a novel of "the women who loved the Romantic poets." I didn't because I felt that I'd been given a complete picture of life for women of that time.
Fanny Brawne really does get a raw deal here - she and Keats don't come in until almost the last 100 pages and their love is quickly glossed over. Compared to the time we spend with Caroline Lamb, Fanny and Keats are barely mentioned. Oddly, their relationship seems the healthiest to me, the one relationship that is a true partnership, a matching of minds, souls and personalities. I wonder if the lack of space in this 534-page novel was due to the fact that it's easier to write unhappiness then it is to depict love and happiness.
In the case of the other three pairings, Morgan doesn't do as good a job convincing us of why these pairs love each other or - at the very least - feel passion for each other. The reader is just supposed to assume that it had to happen. Every other emotion is brilliantly brought to life - boredom, mania, fear, disgust, affection - and he convincingly ages each woman through childhood, young womanhood, marriage, motherhood and beyond.
The way Morgan brings to life the language and feel and texture of the time is truly incredible and the sense of depth and breadth is an incredible accomplishment. I'm not even interested in Regency England but I was there, I felt it - I was in the carriages and the rented houses and the ballrooms. I knew each and every woman just by the way she spoke and saw the world. They really do exist apart from and alongside the men - their perceptions are given more room than the writing of Ode to a Nightingale or Childe Harold. However, some readers may feel cheated as the subtitle claims this is "a novel of the romantic poets" not a novel of "the women who loved the Romantic poets."
Ultimately, the epic vision and beautiful writing redeem the novel's faults. Passion will take its place on my bedside bookshelf alongside my favorite of the genre. About halfway through I started turning down page corners so that I could return to a favorite passage. Good thing the book is beside my bed - I have a lot of favorites to look back on.
Passion is the third Morgan novel I've read after first discovering his book Charlotte and Emily about the Brontes and then buying a Kindle edition of The Secret Life of William Shakespeare when it hadn't been published yet in the U.S. I loved both of those books but according to the reader's guide in the back of my edition, Passion was Morgan's dream project that he worked on after completing some light Regency romances mimicking Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. For lack of a better word, Morgan's passion for the topic definitely comes through here.
Some readers will almost certainly be turned off by this book and Morgan's writing style. Morgan writes at the pace of life. Readers looking for a traditional narrative - a beginning, middle and end or a rise, fall and return will not find any familiar structures here. People just live their lives and when you close the book, you feel as though their stories with the poets they loved have come to an end but the women are still off living their lives.
Morgan has an incredibly unique writing style. In the space of one chapter you can find a range of forms - from a monologue to a scene written in the format of a play (just dialogue and stage directions) to a Jane Austen pastiche that openly borrows and rewrites some of her most famous opening lines. There are even times when the narration switches from past to present tense and then back again and from first to third person and then back again. Writers beware - this is incredibly tricky stuff to pull off. Most of the time, Morgan succeeds and it's rare when one of the tricks in his toolbox turns into a gimmick.
The way Morgan brings to life the language and feel and texture of the time is truly incredible and the sense of depth and breadth in even minor characters is an incredible accomplishment. I'm not even interested in Regency England but I was there, I felt it - I was in the carriages and the rented houses and the ballrooms. I knew each and every woman just by the way she spoke and saw the world. They really do exist apart from and alongside the men - their perceptions are given more room than the writing of Ode to a Nightingale or Childe Harold. Now some readers may feel cheated as the subtitle claims this is "a novel of the romantic poets" not a novel of "the women who loved the Romantic poets." I didn't because I felt that I'd been given a complete picture of life for women of that time.
Fanny Brawne really does get a raw deal here - she and Keats don't come in until almost the last 100 pages and their love is quickly glossed over. Compared to the time we spend with Caroline Lamb, Fanny and Keats are barely mentioned. Oddly, their relationship seems the healthiest to me, the one relationship that is a true partnership, a matching of minds, souls and personalities. I wonder if the lack of space in this 534-page novel was due to the fact that it's easier to write unhappiness then it is to depict love and happiness.
In the case of the other three pairings, Morgan doesn't do as good a job convincing us of why these pairs love each other or - at the very least - feel passion for each other. The reader is just supposed to assume that it had to happen. Every other emotion is brilliantly brought to life - boredom, mania, fear, disgust, affection - and he convincingly ages each woman through childhood, young womanhood, marriage, motherhood and beyond.
The way Morgan brings to life the language and feel and texture of the time is truly incredible and the sense of depth and breadth is an incredible accomplishment. I'm not even interested in Regency England but I was there, I felt it - I was in the carriages and the rented houses and the ballrooms. I knew each and every woman just by the way she spoke and saw the world. They really do exist apart from and alongside the men - their perceptions are given more room than the writing of Ode to a Nightingale or Childe Harold. However, some readers may feel cheated as the subtitle claims this is "a novel of the romantic poets" not a novel of "the women who loved the Romantic poets."
Ultimately, the epic vision and beautiful writing redeem the novel's faults. Passion will take its place on my bedside bookshelf alongside my favorite of the genre. About halfway through I started turning down page corners so that I could return to a favorite passage. Good thing the book is beside my bed - I have a lot of favorites to look back on.
October 24, 2012
Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/runaway84/passio...
Passion is the third book I've read by Jude Morgan. Even though I've read Indiscretion and Charlotte and Emily, I still was fearful over Passion. Why? Well, because like the other two books I read, Passion is told from the perspectives of women, and I figured that Morgan was bound to screw up sometime. I'm very hesitant to read a book primarily about women and from their point of view when it has been written by a man, but let me tell you something: Sometimes, while reading his books, I've completely forgotten who the heck wrote it, because I'm so absorbed in the story. You know, some male authors will write female characters that are completely unrealistic and clearly exist in their own fantasies, but Morgan has written nothing but realistic, flawed women, and I thank him for that.
The book is told from the perspectives of four women from the Romantic era: Augusta Leigh, half sister to Lord Byron; Lady Caroline Lamb, one-time lover to Lord Byron; Mary Goodwin, author of Frankenstein, and eventual wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley; and Fanny Brawne, the love of John Keats' life. However, really, we see everyone from this era. Everyone. Some folks popped up and then left as fast, but some stuck around. It was like a revolving door of names: Polidori, Trewlany, Hunt, etc.
Augusta and Mary were the ones we seemed to hear the most from. We heard a bit from Caroline at the beginning, but once her affair with Byron was over, she only popped up now and again. My favorite to hear from was definitely Mary, and this wasn't the case at the beginning, but I started to realize that I enjoyed her parts more and more as the story went on.
I also enjoyed Fanny Brawne's parts, but we didn't hear much about her until the last part of the story, and unfortunately, Keats didn't show up regularly until the last one hundred pages. This is my only qualm, really, because of all the men were heard about in the story, Keats is my favorite.
It took me three weeks to read this, only because I was savoring it. I'd stop reading, and do some research about what I just read, or I'd just sit and think. I also made a Pinterest board to help me visualize the people and events I was reading about. I ended up getting a lot from this book, and it will probably influence my reading for a while. Because, you see, I haven't read a lot from the Romantic poets. Sure, when I saw Bright Star a few years ago, I read a little of Keats' stuff, but that was it. I'm very much inspired, after reading Passion, to dig into all the works I heard about in the book.
I guess I should say something of the writing. It was beautiful, not flowery, yet very readable. Each woman had their own distinctive voice and personality. The period was also evoked very well, and I definitely got lost in it. This book is definitely a keeper. I could see myself reading it again someday.
Passion is the third book I've read by Jude Morgan. Even though I've read Indiscretion and Charlotte and Emily, I still was fearful over Passion. Why? Well, because like the other two books I read, Passion is told from the perspectives of women, and I figured that Morgan was bound to screw up sometime. I'm very hesitant to read a book primarily about women and from their point of view when it has been written by a man, but let me tell you something: Sometimes, while reading his books, I've completely forgotten who the heck wrote it, because I'm so absorbed in the story. You know, some male authors will write female characters that are completely unrealistic and clearly exist in their own fantasies, but Morgan has written nothing but realistic, flawed women, and I thank him for that.
The book is told from the perspectives of four women from the Romantic era: Augusta Leigh, half sister to Lord Byron; Lady Caroline Lamb, one-time lover to Lord Byron; Mary Goodwin, author of Frankenstein, and eventual wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley; and Fanny Brawne, the love of John Keats' life. However, really, we see everyone from this era. Everyone. Some folks popped up and then left as fast, but some stuck around. It was like a revolving door of names: Polidori, Trewlany, Hunt, etc.
Augusta and Mary were the ones we seemed to hear the most from. We heard a bit from Caroline at the beginning, but once her affair with Byron was over, she only popped up now and again. My favorite to hear from was definitely Mary, and this wasn't the case at the beginning, but I started to realize that I enjoyed her parts more and more as the story went on.
I also enjoyed Fanny Brawne's parts, but we didn't hear much about her until the last part of the story, and unfortunately, Keats didn't show up regularly until the last one hundred pages. This is my only qualm, really, because of all the men were heard about in the story, Keats is my favorite.
It took me three weeks to read this, only because I was savoring it. I'd stop reading, and do some research about what I just read, or I'd just sit and think. I also made a Pinterest board to help me visualize the people and events I was reading about. I ended up getting a lot from this book, and it will probably influence my reading for a while. Because, you see, I haven't read a lot from the Romantic poets. Sure, when I saw Bright Star a few years ago, I read a little of Keats' stuff, but that was it. I'm very much inspired, after reading Passion, to dig into all the works I heard about in the book.
I guess I should say something of the writing. It was beautiful, not flowery, yet very readable. Each woman had their own distinctive voice and personality. The period was also evoked very well, and I definitely got lost in it. This book is definitely a keeper. I could see myself reading it again someday.
July 26, 2008
Jude Morgan's tour-de-force is light years away from the lighthearted romp of "Indiscretion". Passion is a novel written with a biographer's depth of research. Morgan breathes reality into the well-worn scandals of Byron, Shelley, Wollstonecraft and Lamb and dramatically portrays just how scandal and banality coexisted in their lives. Byron remains the least knowable character for his excesses confound comparisons with the more conventional yet still scandalous of his contemporaries. In placing the women in the poets' lives at the center of the novel, Morgan gives importance and depth to the way the women participated in their own scandals and suffered or survived according to their strength of character and the mores of the day. Consider Mary Shelley who endured five pregnancies in five years with only one child to survive while constantly moving house, suffering financial reverses, and struggling to maintain a life with Shelley as his interest flitted to others. All this while writing the first modern horror story, Frankenstein, and pursuing her own writing career. The title of the book, Passion, refers not just to the defining characteristics of the lives Morgan recreates but to Morgan's own feeling for the people and times of which she writes. A brilliant historical novel.
May 6, 2022
2022
I think I'm going to give "Passion" a try again very soon. It's being awhile since I read something about Lord Byron or some of his works, and I miss him so very much! He's one of my favourite poet, and my romantic-era-crush ;p
I remember not being in the mood for this one back in the days, and keeping putting it aside in favor of lightliest reads, but it's been 10 years now! - a re-read is long overdue!
2011
Again, sadly, I wasn't able to finish this book. Yet, I'm not going to abandon it. I liked it in the beginning, but how's happening too often recently, I didn't feel the necessary interest to go on. I'm a huge fan of Byron, Shelley and Keats, so I thought I was going to love this book, getting inside their lives, knowing more about them, what was there in their lives that made them what they were, three of the greatest poets of the Romantic era. See all this through the eyes of the women who loved them could only increase my liking. But there was something, i couldn't grasp exactly what, that didn't satisfied me, and from being unsatisfied to put down the book is a short step.
I think I'm going to give "Passion" a try again very soon. It's being awhile since I read something about Lord Byron or some of his works, and I miss him so very much! He's one of my favourite poet, and my romantic-era-crush ;p
I remember not being in the mood for this one back in the days, and keeping putting it aside in favor of lightliest reads, but it's been 10 years now! - a re-read is long overdue!
2011
Again, sadly, I wasn't able to finish this book. Yet, I'm not going to abandon it. I liked it in the beginning, but how's happening too often recently, I didn't feel the necessary interest to go on. I'm a huge fan of Byron, Shelley and Keats, so I thought I was going to love this book, getting inside their lives, knowing more about them, what was there in their lives that made them what they were, three of the greatest poets of the Romantic era. See all this through the eyes of the women who loved them could only increase my liking. But there was something, i couldn't grasp exactly what, that didn't satisfied me, and from being unsatisfied to put down the book is a short step.
October 3, 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed this book about the women surrounding the lives of the great Romantic poets: Byron, Shelley and Keats, including Mary Shelley the author of Frankenstein and the daughter of the great Mary Wollstonecraft. Their stories are told against the richly detailed social and political background of the 1780s to the 1820s and gives an interesting and insightful look into the their lives and times.
I give it 4 stars rather than five because, as the story is told from several different perspectives, the shifting narrative at times became a little confusing, and also because at 665 pages I found it overly long. Nevertheless, the effort needed is richly rewarding, and I don't hesitate to recommend it to all historical fiction readers interested in this era.
I give it 4 stars rather than five because, as the story is told from several different perspectives, the shifting narrative at times became a little confusing, and also because at 665 pages I found it overly long. Nevertheless, the effort needed is richly rewarding, and I don't hesitate to recommend it to all historical fiction readers interested in this era.
July 29, 2019
This started off slowly- introduction of multiple characters/perspectives all at once, frequent flipping between narrators, and the back and forth between third and first person POVs (and what was with the abundance of colons as punctuation in run-on sentences?). Despite all this, or maybe be cause of this, I really got a sense of the crazy, societal-defying personalities of Lord Byron and his circle of acquaintances. This is the story of Byron and Shelley (with a little bit of Keats) told from the perspectives and feelings of the women who loved them- Lady Caroline Lamb, Mary Godwin Shelley, Augusta Byron Leigh and Fanny Brawne. Absolutely fascinating. Don't let the cover put you off- this is a story of personalities and defying convention, not a steamy romance novel.
May 12, 2021
While I did find it immensely interesting and I really, really liked it, it was a bit confusing with all the different people. And it was sometimes told in different tempos that was strange.
But all in all, a very good book with interesting ladies and their lives.
I was mostly looking forward to the bits about John Keats and Fanny Brawne but there was hardly anything of them. Out of 663 pages, the book didn't really start on their tale until page 565! But I guess that is partly because of the short life of Keats, and because of Brawnes anonymity.
But all in all, a very good book with interesting ladies and their lives.
I was mostly looking forward to the bits about John Keats and Fanny Brawne but there was hardly anything of them. Out of 663 pages, the book didn't really start on their tale until page 565! But I guess that is partly because of the short life of Keats, and because of Brawnes anonymity.
February 14, 2013
I posted this review on the Barnes & Noble site--hopefully more people will find it here, because I am absolutely messianic about this book & have tried to get everyone I know to read it. It fulfills a much-needed gap in historical fiction, and I hope to inspire more people to read it. I love and admire Jane Austen as much as anyone, but hey, Regency England did not begin and end with Jane Austen! Byron, Shelley, and Keats were three of the greatest poets in the language, and also had fascinating, exciting, and ultimately tragic, lives. Jude Morgan illuminates these men and their world by telling the stories of the women closest to them: Byron's most notorious lover, Lady Caroline Lamb; his half-sister (and also lover!) Augusta Leigh; Percy Shelley's wife (and author of Frankenstein), Mary Shelley; and Keats' fiance, Fanny Brawne. Readers should not be put off by the poorly-chosen title or the stereotypically romance-novelish cover. Jude Morgan knows his stuff. He knows not only the literature--clearly he's read the Romantic poets inside and out--but is very knowledgeable about the historical and philosophical background in the period as well. That being said, this book is NEVER BORING, and I think it would be accessible to people who aren't familiar with the poets and their work. I love the way the book opens with the attempted suicide of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of the feminist manifesto, Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the mother of Mary Shelley. This intro really set the scene about the issues that women (especially intelligent, ambitious, gifted women) faced at the time when women's roles were so limited. I found myself sympathetic to all the women in the novel. And of the poets, this novel made me love Keats even more, not just as a poet but as a person; and it helped me to understand Byron better. Morgan's novel has inspired me to read more of his letters and I finally understand now why so many people around him loved and admired him.
Passion is deeply affecting and a powerful and moving read. It channels the spirit of the times, radiating with a true and compassionate understanding of the people whose stories it tells. I've chosen it for my book club, and even though our meeting isn't until next week, I've already gotten favorable phone calls from my book club friends, even those who don't know much about British literature and/or even dislike historical fiction.
Passion is deeply affecting and a powerful and moving read. It channels the spirit of the times, radiating with a true and compassionate understanding of the people whose stories it tells. I've chosen it for my book club, and even though our meeting isn't until next week, I've already gotten favorable phone calls from my book club friends, even those who don't know much about British literature and/or even dislike historical fiction.
February 16, 2016
the last two books I have read were by authors I'd never heard of and they both turned out to be amazing. I picked this up because I'd read lynn shepherd's novel about shelley and byron recently. there was a blurb by tracy chevalier on the front, and though I've never read any of her stuff, at least I've heard of her. still, I wasn't very gung ho about reading it, my expectations were quite low. the title is rather prosaic - which is a strange thing to say about the word "passion".
and it took a while to get into it. the writing style is matched to the period, and it skips from person to person, storyline to storyline. it's quite a long book, over 500 pages, and quite dense. in the beginning it's describing the girlhoods of these women who will later be involved with byron, shelley and keats.
but the writing is amazing. the dialogue (sometimes presented in play format) is excellent, I noticed that first. but the descriptions - "a blaze of heat quivering over the bay like some titanic gong-stroke that never dies away" - are often quite beautiful.
and I love lynn shepherd, but I loved this view of the characters better. shelley in particular came off as quite craven in shepherd but here he is very kindly, very patient. and as for material, the lives of the romantic poets and their women provide it in spades. heartbreaks unto madness, flights to italy, children dying, the women killing themselves, the poets dying.
I wonder what they would have been like today, when many of the constraints they fought are gone, if not universally, at least in london and paris they would have been alright. bisexuality, fine. serial monogamy, living together without marriage, polyamory, children out of wedlock, atheism - all ok. byron sleeping with his half sister, probably not. but there were hints that angelina jolie was over-intimate with her brother - I haven't the slightest idea if they were true or not, but it hasn't really mattered. she's quite beloved.
I don't know, would they still have been famous or infamous, would they still have written as well, if they didn't feel themselves to be breaking the bounds of convention at every turn?
in any case, beautifully written historical fiction.
and it took a while to get into it. the writing style is matched to the period, and it skips from person to person, storyline to storyline. it's quite a long book, over 500 pages, and quite dense. in the beginning it's describing the girlhoods of these women who will later be involved with byron, shelley and keats.
but the writing is amazing. the dialogue (sometimes presented in play format) is excellent, I noticed that first. but the descriptions - "a blaze of heat quivering over the bay like some titanic gong-stroke that never dies away" - are often quite beautiful.
and I love lynn shepherd, but I loved this view of the characters better. shelley in particular came off as quite craven in shepherd but here he is very kindly, very patient. and as for material, the lives of the romantic poets and their women provide it in spades. heartbreaks unto madness, flights to italy, children dying, the women killing themselves, the poets dying.
I wonder what they would have been like today, when many of the constraints they fought are gone, if not universally, at least in london and paris they would have been alright. bisexuality, fine. serial monogamy, living together without marriage, polyamory, children out of wedlock, atheism - all ok. byron sleeping with his half sister, probably not. but there were hints that angelina jolie was over-intimate with her brother - I haven't the slightest idea if they were true or not, but it hasn't really mattered. she's quite beloved.
I don't know, would they still have been famous or infamous, would they still have written as well, if they didn't feel themselves to be breaking the bounds of convention at every turn?
in any case, beautifully written historical fiction.
July 20, 2013
Discovered this one at my local library, and by all the stars in yond marble heav'n, it became an instant favourite!
Jude Morgan's is a tale of Augusta Byron and her half-brother the Lord Byron, his mistress Lady Caroline Lamb, of Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Bysshe, of Fanny Brawne's all-too-brief love for Keats, featuring cameos from Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Mary Wollstonecraft. Morgan's prose is clever and poetic, delightful to read, changing her style in subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways to give each of our four heroines a different tone to match their unique viewpoint, matching the setting to the jewels. Very difficult to achieve, an an absolute pleasure to indulge in.
"Indulge" is the right word here: this is a very indulgent book. If you don't like the Romantic poets, or have little patience for Romanticism in general, then this isn't for you. The overall arc is of a few gifted, spurned individuals cursed by their own awesomeness to plot their way to splendid downfall (Oh, oh, oh, Lord Byron, how beautifully you suffer!). We only barely brush the muddy earth where mortals trudge, and even then only to provide some context for the next operatic storm of emotion.
That said, our main cast are real people, complex and fleshed out, and a lot of fun to be with. Only our peripheral characters are cartoonish and under-developed, probably deliberate for comedic effect, and justifiable given we see this world from our heroines' points of view.
I wouldn't quite call it a masterpiece, but it succeeds equally as an exercise in craft and just by being a ripping good story. It's also a bit of a doorstopper, covering about twenty years, which in a book you like is a plus point, but if not be warned! Overall, if you're the sort of person who, like Byron and Shelley themselves, prefers the theatrical to the mundane, heartache to boredom, and finds a Hell in day-to-day life being so damnably day-to-day, then this is a book for you. You'll read it more than once.
Jude Morgan's is a tale of Augusta Byron and her half-brother the Lord Byron, his mistress Lady Caroline Lamb, of Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Bysshe, of Fanny Brawne's all-too-brief love for Keats, featuring cameos from Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Mary Wollstonecraft. Morgan's prose is clever and poetic, delightful to read, changing her style in subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways to give each of our four heroines a different tone to match their unique viewpoint, matching the setting to the jewels. Very difficult to achieve, an an absolute pleasure to indulge in.
"Indulge" is the right word here: this is a very indulgent book. If you don't like the Romantic poets, or have little patience for Romanticism in general, then this isn't for you. The overall arc is of a few gifted, spurned individuals cursed by their own awesomeness to plot their way to splendid downfall (Oh, oh, oh, Lord Byron, how beautifully you suffer!). We only barely brush the muddy earth where mortals trudge, and even then only to provide some context for the next operatic storm of emotion.
That said, our main cast are real people, complex and fleshed out, and a lot of fun to be with. Only our peripheral characters are cartoonish and under-developed, probably deliberate for comedic effect, and justifiable given we see this world from our heroines' points of view.
I wouldn't quite call it a masterpiece, but it succeeds equally as an exercise in craft and just by being a ripping good story. It's also a bit of a doorstopper, covering about twenty years, which in a book you like is a plus point, but if not be warned! Overall, if you're the sort of person who, like Byron and Shelley themselves, prefers the theatrical to the mundane, heartache to boredom, and finds a Hell in day-to-day life being so damnably day-to-day, then this is a book for you. You'll read it more than once.
July 3, 2016
An account of the women sharing their lives with Lord Byron, Shelley and Keats. A very good description of the middle/upper class of that time with emphasis on the women, their social surroundings, morals and ethics of that time, politics and major events of the period. You get a look at the literary and social scene, the Prince Regent, Beau Brummel, Napoleon, Waterloo and so on and so forth.
Although its central theme is romantic relationships, I would not class this as a romantic novel, but rather a historic one. There is not a strong narrative thread. Which is probably the reason, why I started loosing interest about half way through. So, I enjoyed the first 300 pages very much, but thought that the book got a bit scattered after that. I did not like the chapters that were told by Caro Lamb much - mostly because I did not like her talking directly at me. I did not think that worked very well.
The storyline of Keats and Fanny Brawne felt like an afterthought and the book could have done without it. I liked Augusta and Mary Shelley best. They were the most vivid and interesting characters in the book. And Byron - I wouldn't mind having dinner with him, to see what all the fuss is about and if he was really this fascinating!
I expected their stay at lake Geneva - where Frankenstein was "born" - to be the pivotal point of the book and was a bit disappointed how briefly it appeared.
It is a good story though and was worth reading.
Although its central theme is romantic relationships, I would not class this as a romantic novel, but rather a historic one. There is not a strong narrative thread. Which is probably the reason, why I started loosing interest about half way through. So, I enjoyed the first 300 pages very much, but thought that the book got a bit scattered after that. I did not like the chapters that were told by Caro Lamb much - mostly because I did not like her talking directly at me. I did not think that worked very well.
The storyline of Keats and Fanny Brawne felt like an afterthought and the book could have done without it. I liked Augusta and Mary Shelley best. They were the most vivid and interesting characters in the book. And Byron - I wouldn't mind having dinner with him, to see what all the fuss is about and if he was really this fascinating!
I expected their stay at lake Geneva - where Frankenstein was "born" - to be the pivotal point of the book and was a bit disappointed how briefly it appeared.
It is a good story though and was worth reading.
August 5, 2012
4.5 Well-researched, beautifully written fictionalization of the lives of four of the female loves of the second generation Romantic poets: Caroline Lamb, married to another but obsessed with the "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" Byron; Augusta Leigh, half-sister and reputed incestuous lover of same; Mary Godwin, teen lover and later wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley; and Fanny Brawne, the inspiration for much of Keats' best poetry. Nuanced, sympathetic, and emotionally moving characterizations make this well worth the read. I liked Morgan's decision to show the men only through the eyes of the women; it gives you a much stronger sense of the limitations of how much we ever really know the ones we love. The men come off surprisingly well, even given all their emotional failings. The real villains of the story turn out to be other women: Mary Jane Clairmont Godwin, who blights the young Mary Godwin's life when she marries her idolized father and foists on her a bitter sibling rival in the form of the outgoing attention-loving Jane (later Claire); and Annabella Milbanke, who marries Byron out of the mistaken hope she can make him a better (as she defines it) man, then ruins his reputation by leaving him and suing him for a formal separation. Misogyny or truth? Or a bit of both? Makes me eager to read actual biographies to find out. And to watch the film BRIGHT STAR again...
August 17, 2014
Epic. Brilliant fictional recreation of the lives of 3 great Romantic poets - Byron, Shelley, Keats - and the women they were involved with - Byron's lovers Caroline Lamb and Augusta Leigh, Shelley's lover and wife Mary Godwin Shelley, and Keats' fiancee Fanny Brawne. The opening chapters also touch on the difficult life of Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman", a hugely influential book of feminist philosophy. The stories in "Passion" are told from the women's point of view, and in places they are harrowing, but always believable. Morgan must have done a huge amount of research to write this and get all the details and feelings so true. Caroline Lamb comes off very badly in the book, Augusta Leigh (who was Byron's half-sister) not too badly, while Mary Shelley has my complete admiration and sympathy. Lord Byron is portrayed as a fascinating, utterly charming, brilliant monster, while Shelley is something of a monster who fails to see how his ideas and the impulses that come from them finally kill Mary's love for him. The story of John Keats and Fanny Brawne has the smallest part in the book, but was the most emotionally affecting for me. His early death from tuberculosis was such a tragic loss. Note to self - must see the movie "Bright Star".
November 8, 2010
I love this book. Simply adore it, with all its fictionalised fact and gothic themes.
The number of women on this site who claim terrible disappointment seem to have thought this was a bodice-ripper; there IS plenty of sex and love here, but generally implicit rather than explicit. The passions the title refer to are rather the passions of life, the things that compel people and drive our actions and behaviours. These are not always clean, wholesome or healthy for us, but often destructive and terrible. Hence the gothic. (Be forewarned; women in these pages do not faint on couches. Rather, they committ suicide, argue, see their children die and are separated from their lovers.)
My only complaint is the section on Keats and Fanny Brawne. Although the passages on Fanny's earlier life seem as though they may fit into the rest of the story, the later parts of her life, which are concerned with Keats (and indeed, the inclusion of Keats himself in the book) are so wildly different (not to mention separate from the intertwining of the other characters' lives, largely through the nexus of Byron)from the rest - despite the Doomed Love - that they do not feel as though they belong.
The number of women on this site who claim terrible disappointment seem to have thought this was a bodice-ripper; there IS plenty of sex and love here, but generally implicit rather than explicit. The passions the title refer to are rather the passions of life, the things that compel people and drive our actions and behaviours. These are not always clean, wholesome or healthy for us, but often destructive and terrible. Hence the gothic. (Be forewarned; women in these pages do not faint on couches. Rather, they committ suicide, argue, see their children die and are separated from their lovers.)
My only complaint is the section on Keats and Fanny Brawne. Although the passages on Fanny's earlier life seem as though they may fit into the rest of the story, the later parts of her life, which are concerned with Keats (and indeed, the inclusion of Keats himself in the book) are so wildly different (not to mention separate from the intertwining of the other characters' lives, largely through the nexus of Byron)from the rest - despite the Doomed Love - that they do not feel as though they belong.
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