She also presents the recently canonised Ada in a somewhat harsher, clearer light than some of her feminist champions would like.
Seymour’s particular concern is to correct the partisanship of Doris Langley Moore, whose devotion to Byron led her to discount Annabella as a malicious fantasist. In a fascinating epilogue, Seymour reviews the wars posthumously waged over these women’s reputations, notably in relation to the role of Byron’s widow, Annabella, in the break-up of their marriage and the nature of his daughter Ada’s achievement as a mathematician. Miranda Seymour is too subtle, astute and experienced an historian to hector or exaggerate in order to do justice to their cases, and her zestful prose keeps the reader engaged throughout. At a moment when the MeToo and Time’s Up movements are dominating conversation, it seems appropriate that the story of one of the world’s most legendary male seducers should be told again from the perspective of two women he abused and abandoned.īut there’s no special pleading in this deeply absorbing and meticulously researched biography of Byron’s wife and daughter.
0 kommentar(er)
