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Shears, J (2021) An Allusion to Don Juan: Reappraising Branwell Bronte's Byronic Self-Fashioning. Brontë Studies. (In Press)

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the accepted author manuscript (AAM). The final published version (version of record) will be available online via Maney Publishing at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ybst20/current - please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Branwell Brontë, Lord Byron, Byronic hero, immaturity, ageing
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Humanities
Depositing User:	Symplectic
Date Deposited:	12 Feb 2021 15:26
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2021 10:25
URI:	https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/9151

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