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An Allusion to Don Juan: Reappraising Branwell Bronte's Byronic Self-Fashioning

Shears, Jonathon

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Abstract

In January 1847, Branwell Brontë wrote a letter to his friend J. B. Leyland quoting from Lord Byron’s satirical epic Don Juan. This was an unusual choice of allusion given that the topic is Byron’s feelings of longsuffering that Branwell usually related to other Byron works such as Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Manfred. This essay explores the reasons why the stanzas to which Branwell refers seemed a more appropriate literary touchstone at a point in his life when he was publicly suffering personal and professional embarrassment as he struggled to come to terms with romantic disappointment and his heavy drinking.

Acceptance Date Feb 1, 2021
Publication Date Dec 16, 2021
Journal Brontë Studies
Print ISSN 1474-8932
Publisher Maney Publishing
Pages 30-46
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/14748932.2021.1991615
Keywords Branwell Brontë, Lord Byron, Byronic hero, immaturity, ageing
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1080/14748932.2021.1991615

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