Editorial

A major strength of The Byron Journal has been its ability to house a diverse array of approaches to the poet and his work. The present issue is no different. The following pages contain essays that throw up new discoveries and suggestions about Byron’s life and reception and others that will make us look with new eyes at things we thought we knew well.

Falling into the first of these two categories, we have essays on the week that Byron spent in Rochdale in 1811, Byron’s reception in the Netherlands and the catalogue of the Byron book sale of 1827. In the second category are two essays on Don Juan: one discussing the impact of Catholicism on Byron’s comic verse, the other a reassessment of the chronology of the poem. As usual there are also conference reports, there is a letter containing a reminiscence of the late Elma Dangerfield and Derek Wise, Alex Alec-Smith’s report of the last year of Byron-related sales and auctions, a book reviews section and reports on the activities of a number of the Byron societies from around the globe. These pages suggest that the world of Byron studies has seldom been more active and animated: something that I am sure will be underlined by the forthcoming 39th IBS conference in London for which an unprecedented number of papers have been submitted.

If the current issue of the journal showcases variety, the next will be arranged around a single theme (deriving from last September’s conference in Covent Garden): Byron and 1812. The material promises to be as absorbing as that on view here.