Reviews

The Fall of the House of Byron: Scandal and Seduction in Georgian England by Emily Brand

annarella's review

4.0

This is a well written, well researched and entertaining book. I didn't know anything about Byron's family and it was interesting to learn about this extraordinary characters.
I liked how the book is told and how vivid the background is.
A very good read, recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

effy's review

2.0

I found this book a real chore to read. In theory the story of the downfall of the Byrons should have been really exciting as there was murder, incest, gambling, shipwrecks... Somehow this book just struggled to hold my interest. I think one of the largest issues that I had with the book was the way that it was structured meant that we followed one sibling continuously for a long period of time before following another sibling for a long period of time. Whilst the siblings' paths did diverge at times they also converged so some events were repeated in multiple chapters; it also meant that by the time the book moved to later stages in the Bryons' lives, some key events in their lives had been forgotten. Brand uses a large quantity of contemporary quotes throughout the book which I found jarring.

I went into this book with no knowledge about any of the Bryon family history; this book may be more enjoyable to readers more familiar with their stories, looking for further depth.