Another link, NY Times, May 27, 2011.
My notes from Stauffer's books. Reading Stauffer's biography of Byron for the first time alongside re-reading Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
Stauffer: American; foremost authority on Byron.
I elected to start with the introduction and a bit of background reading, not much and then proceed directly to chapter 5, "Haunted Summer."
1816.
The year of no summer.
Volcanic eruption the previous year.
Byron, age 28 -- to escape his creditors and his failing marriage; and probably escape any number of other women, particularly Lady Caroline Lamb.
Why Switzerland: Romanticists; Rousseau best known; Rousseau's milieu -- Lake Geneva
The letter that is the subject of chapter 5, written from Byron's residence on Lake Geneva, Diodati, Secheron, Geneva. Secheron is northeast of Geneva, within the city limits now, probably, just a few steps from the lake itself.
Lord Byron, wife Annabelle (m. 1815, perhaps a wealthy uncle); daughter Ada born also in 1815; half-sister Augusta with whom Byron was sexually involved, perhaps even more so than with his wife.
Legal separation, 1816 (probably, March, 1816; Byron leaves England late April or so, arriving Waterloo, Belgium May 4, and arriving Geneva, May 27th.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (to be Shelley) and Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont had preceded them. Percy involved Claire, but Claire could see that Percey did not care for her, and when Claire learned of Byron's separation from his wife, Claire decided she would have a poet of her own. Claire and that group which also included a 7-year-old son William -- had arrived Geneva somewhat earlier. Claire invited Byron to Switzerland for an overnight affair, which, of course, she hoped would evolve into something greater. It did not.
Emily Brontë -- 1818 - 1848 -- died at age 30 years old; Wuthering Heights published, 1847.
so if Bronte died 1824, Emily was born six years earlier
Byron never knew Brontë; but Brontë "knew" of Byron and Frankenstein, 1818 (published that year)
Frankenstein published the year of Emily Brontë birth.
Chapter 5: Haunted Summer, 28 y/o
a
The letter to his half-sister Augusta was written from his residence, Diodati-Geneva, letter dated Sept 8, 1816.
To his half-sister Augusta after he left England for the last time.
Goethe
b. 1749
d. 1832
in 1816:
Goethe: 67 y/o
Byron: 28 y/o
Byron met his half-sister Augusta, 1813
-- daughter Elizabeth Medora (b. 1814)
Byron married Annabella 1815 -- wealthy uncle?
daughter Ada also in 1815
legal separation 1816, March 1816
Byron leaves England, just a few months later, May, 1816
So, now after arriving in Geneva -- specifically the Villa Diodati -- mansion in the village of Cologny near Lake Geneva, Switzerland
p. 131: describes the location
At the time of the letter: his two friends from college -- Trinity College
John Hobhouse
Scrope Davies
Up until then Byron living with the highly charged trio:
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 26 y/o, 1792 - 1822; 24 years old; four years younger than Byron
partner Mary Godwin, 1759 - 1797; Mary nee Wollstonecraft Godwin -- 57 years old
daughter Mary Godwin (daughter) to be Mary Shelley, 1797 - 1851, 19 years old
Claire Clairmont -- stepsister of Claire Clairmont; mother of Lord Byron's daughter Allegra
Claire born 1798: one year younger than Mary
So, at the Diodati, a menage a trois, Percy: 24 y/o
Mary Godwin Shelley: 19 y/o
Clair Clairmont: 18 y/o
Along with Lord Byron
arrives with his Trinity College friends
John Hobhouse and Scrope Davies (gamberl)
Byron with his personal friend and doctor: John Polidori
Sounds like a Shakespearean play. LOL.
The summer was in the Alps -- a time of transformation for Byron
Interesting: the menage a troie in England -- Bryon -- Annabella -- Augusta
Like Byron, Percy left England left his wife Harriet and their two small children.
Departed England, 1816, also with two stepsisters in household of political philosopher William Godwin. Both 18:
daughter Mary; and,
stepdaughter Claire Clairmont
William Godwin
months-long marriage to Mary Wollstonecroft --> daughter Mary Godwin
Wollstonecroft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Wollestonecroft died soon after birth of Mary
William Godwin remarries -- stepdaughter Claire Clairemont
and a second daughter Fanny -- via American Gilbey Imlay
Mary and Percy
Claire: jealous -- wants to land a poet of her own -- writes Byron even though he was still married to Annabella
Percy, Mary, Claire -- big fans of Byron
-- Byron's separation gave Claire an opening
Sir Lord Byron travels to Geneva in coach captured at Waterloo -- LOL -- p. 136. Byron's hero was Napoleon Bonaparte.
Servants: Fletcher and Rushton
Meet Hobhouse and Davies at Dover
Map of Lake Geneva (Lac Le'man)
half in France; half in Switzerland
north half in Switzerland
south half in France
city of Geneva on north side of Lake at the southernmost tip of the lake
Secheron: a suburb of northeast Geneva, where the Diodati -- right across a road from the lake
Why Switzerland?
Birthplace of Rousseau -- Social Contract -- helped prompt the French Revolution.
Established Geneva as a spiritual center of the Romantic movement in Europe.
Switzerland: also history of political liberty.
On way to Switzerland -- visited Waterloo in Belgium!
Result: Childe Harold
Byron still unhappy with royalty, lock of political liberty;
Journey up the Rhine: Bonn, Koblenz, Mannheim, Karlsruhe
Ehrenbreitstein -- p. 139
result: greatest work -- Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Waterloo), Sardanapalus, Don Juan
Hotel d'Angleterr in Secheron -- wow!!!!
Map: tri-point Basel -- Germany - France - Switzerland
p. 140: Byron, Stauffer, 2024; 1816
Byron and Polidori on the lake.
Byron meets Percy for the first time!
Sexual tension.
Godwins' theories (Mary Shelley): "free love" or polyamory
Polidori signaled that Byron's affair with Claire was well-known.
Percy, Shelley, Polidore meet together for dinner without the women.
An evening that opened the change in English literature history.
Shelley: "Mont Blanc"
Byron: previously mentioned, add The Prisoner of Chillon and "Darkness"
Franksenstein: modern vampire novel; thanks to Byron and Polidori
This is 1816 -- Wuthering Heights -- came out in 1847.
Google: May 3, 1816: Percy, Mary and Claire leave England for Switzerland
May 27, 1816: Byron and Percy meet!!!
"The year of of summer."
Undead corpse = vampire vs zombie.
Undead: very difficult to distinguish between vampire and zombies
vampires: at moment of "death" -- continues to haunt family members; very physically strong; much strong physically than zombies
zombies: dies, corpses -- which are then re-animated by various means!!
Percy -- Mary -- Claire
son William (Percy and Mary)
these three spend many evenings at the Diodati
opium (laudanum)
Byron --> Claire
Byron preferred the enthusiastically idealistic Percy and the more quietly brilliant Mary Godwin
p. 143: describes the year of no summer, 1816
-- must have arrived in May, 1816 because he was at Waterloo, Brussels, May 4, 1816.
Tambora: summer of 1816, p 142; the previous year, 1815
Mary: a year earlier -- a premature baby had died at 3 weeks of age.
Wow, wow, wow, -- Brits would have read Byron's vampire stories --> lead directly to Emily Brontë's scenes later in her book with Edgar's death !! wow!!
undead corpse: p. 144
Polidori's Vampyre, 1819.
iodine deficiency -- Alpine diet -- p. 149
Byron and Shelley, closer bond 1816
mineral waters at Evian
mountain-flower honey at Meillerie
Meillerie - honey house
Miel d'Alsace; protected under EU law with PGI status
PGI: protected geographical indication
Rousseau's novel Julie
Clarens (Montreux) -- made famous by Rousseau
- Vladimir Nabokov moved her with Vera, 1961, buried here
For Byron, Clarens the birthplace of deep love! p. 150
"I should, many a good day, have blown my brains out, but for the recollection that it would have given pleasure to my mother-in-law." p. 151
