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dee9401's review
5.0
What a fun and educational read. The dedication to Southey and other first generation Romantics who turned their backs on liberalism and embraced Tory causes reminded me of Byron's great romp in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. For epic tear-downs, Byron's got it.
Canto 1 was awesome. The story of Juan's parent's marriage was great and I loved his description of his affair with Donna Julia. Canto 2 has a wonderful quote: "H/e fell upon whate'er was offer'd, like / A priest, a shark, an alderman, or pike." (Stanza CLXII). The third canto wasn't as good, more rambling, but still full of barbs. Canto V notes how everyone wants to write a book recounting their travel experiences in order to win praise. Canto's VI, IX, XIII and XIV were also really good.
Overall, Don Juan was a fun melding of satire, political commentary, storytelling, and reflections on societal mores. If we isolated just the Don Juan segments, it'd be an amazing story on its own, but adding in everything else makes it so much better.
Canto 1 was awesome. The story of Juan's parent's marriage was great and I loved his description of his affair with Donna Julia. Canto 2 has a wonderful quote: "H/e fell upon whate'er was offer'd, like / A priest, a shark, an alderman, or pike." (Stanza CLXII). The third canto wasn't as good, more rambling, but still full of barbs. Canto V notes how everyone wants to write a book recounting their travel experiences in order to win praise. Canto's VI, IX, XIII and XIV were also really good.
Overall, Don Juan was a fun melding of satire, political commentary, storytelling, and reflections on societal mores. If we isolated just the Don Juan segments, it'd be an amazing story on its own, but adding in everything else makes it so much better.
colorfulleo92's review against another edition
4.0
I have to agree with the Goodreads blurb that this poem is "rambling". However something about it was just so compelling and mesmerizing to read. It was easy to get caught up with the beautiful language of the poem and get invested in the story. It took me far to long to pick up something by Lord Byron as I was so sure I wouldn't like it.
musicdeepdive's review against another edition
3.75
Docked significantly for the narrative flying all over the place and detouring from any sense of plot (which, admittedly, was probably the point), but saved in large part by Byron's florid, amusing musings. I'll take shorter-form Byron satire over this, from what I've read anyways, but there's plenty of value to this epic nonetheless.
brenticus's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This is a wild read. Byron is just all over the place. I don't understand half the stuff he's satirizing but his writing is just so lyrical and chill that it's fun to just kind of bob along with the words.
The plot, uh, exists, sort of. Reading about Juan's exploits is fun for the couple of stanzas at a time that Byron can focus on him.
The incompleteness is... unfortunate. It's not that he had drafts left or anything, the story literally just ends on a cliffhanger. So that's weird.
It's just a bizarre read. I was very into it. Byron is weird, I like him.
The plot, uh, exists, sort of. Reading about Juan's exploits is fun for the couple of stanzas at a time that Byron can focus on him.
The incompleteness is... unfortunate. It's not that he had drafts left or anything, the story literally just ends on a cliffhanger. So that's weird.
It's just a bizarre read. I was very into it. Byron is weird, I like him.
anna_99l's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
rosekk's review
3.0
The edition I actually read was published by Phoenix, in a series of mini classics, so I don't know if it had all the same poems as this edition.
There were some poems/parts of poems that I really liked - some bits were humorous, or beautiful images. Some of it, however, failed to grab my attention and I found oddly annoying - especially the heavy references to mythology where I couldn't quite understand the point of it. Those bits struck me as heavy-handed and showy, and brought my opinion down.
There were some poems/parts of poems that I really liked - some bits were humorous, or beautiful images. Some of it, however, failed to grab my attention and I found oddly annoying - especially the heavy references to mythology where I couldn't quite understand the point of it. Those bits struck me as heavy-handed and showy, and brought my opinion down.