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A review by verityw
The Fall of the House of Byron: Scandal and Seduction in Georgian England by Emily Brand
3.0
****Copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review****
If you've only heard of the poet, there's a lot you're missing out on about the Byron family - and this book sets out to change that. I had come across Admiral Byron before - but only in passing in history lectures. But it turns out there's a scandalous sister and a profligate baron who fought in a duel. I enjoyed this, and it's clearly very well researched, but I found it sometimes quite hard to keep track of the large cast of characters (who often share names) and I found the jumps forward and backwards a little confusing - but that may just be the way that it was formatted in the advance e-copy I had. But if you like histories of aristocratic families, this is worth your while - there is so much going on here in so few generations. And if you're interested in the poet, then this has valuable insight into his family and backstory - although not a huge amount about him.
If you've only heard of the poet, there's a lot you're missing out on about the Byron family - and this book sets out to change that. I had come across Admiral Byron before - but only in passing in history lectures. But it turns out there's a scandalous sister and a profligate baron who fought in a duel. I enjoyed this, and it's clearly very well researched, but I found it sometimes quite hard to keep track of the large cast of characters (who often share names) and I found the jumps forward and backwards a little confusing - but that may just be the way that it was formatted in the advance e-copy I had. But if you like histories of aristocratic families, this is worth your while - there is so much going on here in so few generations. And if you're interested in the poet, then this has valuable insight into his family and backstory - although not a huge amount about him.