When Byron published the first two cantos of Don Juan in 1819 the first readers of the poem did not know what to make of it. It was a poem that they had to learn how to read. In exploring this claim, Prof Richard Cronin (University of Glasgow) will make another, much larger claim: the strategies Byron’s readers had to develop to understand this strange new poem were then applied to other works, as well. By the time Byron died, his readers were opening their copies of Chaucer or Shakespeare and were surprised to find that they seemed to be reading Byronic poets. Learning to read Don Juan had changed the way that they understood the whole history of English literature. Cronin suggests that Byron’s poem retains that power. In his talk, he will detail how after immersing himself in Don Juan for three or four years in order to write a book on that poem, he was surprised to find himself returning to Jane Austen and reading her very differently. ‘Jane Austen and Byron knew each other’s work but Jane Austen never had the opportunity to read Don Juan’, Cronin says. ‘Nevertheless it was the poem that Jane Austen never read, I now recognize, that had changed the way that I was reading her novels.’ In his talk, Prof Cronin will ask what that tells us about Jane Austen, and what it tells us about Byron.

This talk explores how Thomas Wildman curated Byron’s ancestral home of Newstead Abbey and the experience of visitors, both literary and utterly disinterested, thus creating a plethora of enduring impressions and lies about Byron. Dr Sam Hirst explores the research process in sorting through the rumours as well as the impact of Wildman’s curation on both contemporary understandings of Byron and on common present-day myths and misconceptions.

This talk explores how volcanos have shaped the Gothic as a genre and how Lord Byron emerged as the ultimate ‘Volcanic Gothic’ celebrity.

Byron’s public image as a scandalously ‘vampiric’ figure is well known from Polidori’s ‘The Vampire’ and Lady Caroline Lamb’s Glenarvon, but this paper explores how Byron and his admirers often preferred the volcanic metaphor to the vampiric as a means of talking about his poetic genius and fiery public persona.

This talk will set Byron’s work in the context of widespread scientific and popular interest in volcanos in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, from geological studies of Etna and Vesuvius to popular fascination with the excavations at Pompeii. I suggest that, as Gothic signifiers, the volcano and the vampire emerge as cultural cousins: both serve as portals in time where menaces from the past might be spewed forth to menace the present, and both producing uncannily petrified people as embodiments of Gothic anxiety.

Understanding how the Gothic has been shaped by volcanos affords us a new way of reading some of Byron’s most famous works and tracing his influences in texts as diverse as Little Women, Dracula and The Lord of the Rings.

IN-PERSON EVENT

Time: 6:30-8:00 GMT

Registration: Here

Enquiries: 

contact@thebyronsociety.com

Come and celebrate Byron’s birthday by reading and discussing together the poem in which he discovered his humorous poetic voice: the first work in which he used the Italian verse form of ottava rima to bring the characteristic light tone of his conversation and his letters into his poetry. In Beppo, published in 1818, the poet known for his melodramatic romances and gloomy meditations suddenly revealed himself as a witty and chatty raconteur, and this was the voice he chose for Don Juan from 1819.

The session—a reading of extracts from Beppo of about 30 minutes, followed by a discussion of the poem—will be chaired by Ken Robbie, Chairman of the Byron Society, and led by Dr Christine Kenyon Jones, Research Fellow of King’s College London and author of Dangerous to Show: Byron and his Portraits (2020) and Jane Austen & Lord Byron: Regency Relations (2024). Please contact us if you would like to volunteer as a reader for the event.

My father Mr. Chao-Chun Chou (周朝俊先生) completed an article in Taiwanese Min Nan entitled “George Gordon, Lord Byron: The Destruction of Sennacherib,” shortly before his passing at 90 in 2016.

Father introduces Byron and this poem to the Taiwanese people through this article, which is essentially a Biblical commentary on the passage in 2 Kings 18-19 that Byron’s poem is based upon. Imbedded within this work is father’s translation of this Byron poem in anapestic tetrameter into a Taiwanese Min Nan poem in the Seven Character Ancient Chinese Poetry format (七言古詩). 

Byron’s poetic prowess transforms the Biblical story into a lively drama. The vivid imagery makes father’s commentary engaging to read. Father emphasizes on Bryon’s creative vitality, boundless imaginations, witty expressions, and across the lands eye-witness on-the-spot reporting style that captures the essence of the story about God’s miraculous deliverance of His faithful believers. Father briefly touches on Byron’s unruly personality and scandalous life, and concludes with positive affirmations of Byron’s heroism for the Greek cause.  

The Taiwan Church News (TCN), the first newspaper in Taiwan founded by the British missionary Mr. Thomas Barclay in 1885, published my father’s work in the 1st issue of this year 2025(3801) in the paper form (please see the above photos) and the e-form:  https://tcnn.org.tw/archives/227593.

Father was raised in a big loving family with more than a dozen siblings to grow up with. His asthma not only greatly limited his life experiences, but also cut short a promising English teaching career.  He felt as if he’s running in a never-ending marathon, out of breath at all time, that his life could be snatched away at any given moment. My loving mother, a professionally trained nurse, was a true lifesaver to him whenever a severe attack required a shot to stabilize his condition.

Otherwise, my father, a gentleman scholar, was very much loved, supported, and respected by his big family, his students, and the church community where he served as an elder. It was this enormous blessing from all aspects of his life father received that propelled him to walk steadfastly with the Lord to safely sail through the vicissitudes of life. Father viewed his asthma a blessing like Apostle Paul’s” thorn in the flesh” that kept him humble before the Lord.

When every mortal being’s eventual Assyrian army, the horseman of death, finally arrived to take down the sacred Jerusalem within father, he resolutely kept his faith in God’s deliverance. The angel of the Lord came down and swiftly put everything in a standstill – ascending into eternity, father silently breathed out his last breath on earth. I like to think that wisdom gleamed in this broad stroke Byron poem played a part in father’s peaceful departure.

Nat and Natasha studied music together in secondary school before pursuing degrees in Science and Law, respectively, at Cambridge. Despite this, they continued to combine their creative passions, culminating in 1816. Uniting art and science, as Polidori and the Shelleys did in their own lives and literary works, is a key theme that runs throughout the show. Lord Byron’s connection to the University remains a great inspiration, especially as Nat studies at Trinity College. 

The show explores themes of Romanticism, academic pressure, and creative ambition. Byron battles inner turmoil as he attempts to write a masterpiece – the  pressure of his legacy, his fame, and his humanity weighing heavy on his mind. 

The writings of the Romantics play a central role in 1816 and is adapted both into the script and into various songs throughout the musical. An extract from Byron’s poem ‘To Thomas Moore’ is sung as a toast by Byron and Percy Shelley. Claire Clairmont’s ballad is structured as a letter to Byron and is made up of various snippets from her actual writings. The music itself takes inspiration from multiple places, with more typically Classical sounds in the earlier songs, including a strong Mozart and Beethoven influence for the opening. As the tension rises, more Romantic sounds are used, such as the Rachmaninoff-esque, heavy textures in Frankenstein, and rhythms like those of composers such as Liszt, who himself was greatly influenced by Byron’s poetry.

1816 is being performed at the Theatro Technis, London, on the 6th and 7th August 2025 at 9pm, the Lion & Unicorn Theatre, London, from 30th September- 4th October 2025 at 7.30pm, and the Corpus Playroom, Cambridge, from 15th – 8th October 2025 at 7pm. The link below contains tickets and more information about the show:

https://1816musical.com

The theme of the 2026 Newstead Conference is Byron and Identity. The conference will take place at Newstead Abbey, from 24–25 April 2026, and will include a dinner on the evening of the 24th and a tour of Newstead Abbey or its Gardens on the 25th.

The keynote will be delivered by Dr Gerard McKeever, titled ‘Borrowing Byron from the Library’

‘Changeable too, yet somehow “Idem semper”’ (Don Juan, XVII.11). The concept of identity suggests stability, lasting self-sameness. And yet, Byron’s proclamation of being ‘idem semper’—‘always the same’—somehow includes changeability. Byron’s version of the Ship of Theseus paradox points to a problem at the heart of the idea of identity: how can something, or someone, stay the same if everything is in flux? Identity’s supposed elimination of differences is further complicated by its fragmentation into various, at times competing, forms, which are seldom stable: comprising personal and professional constructions, as well as questions of nationality, sexuality, political leanings and authorial style, identity invoked mutability in Byron’s own times no less than in ours. The chameleonic poet was intimately aware of the innate mutability of identity, playfully shaping and reshaping his personal and poetic identities as he engaged with (and disengaged from) different audiences. This ‘mobilité’, to use a Byronic term, perhaps lies at the heart of his enduring popularity—yet it also forms the crux of many attacks against Byron and his works by past and present critics.

‘Byron and Identity’ CFP Here: Newstead Abbey 2026 Call For Papers

We will also be offering two student travel bursaries available. Further details are available on the call for papers page (link above).

Conference details

Programme details will be available shortly

Transport during the conference

We will provide buses to:

• Travel Lodge, from Newstead Abbey on 25th April
• Newstead Abbey, from Travel Lodge on 24th April
• Portland College, from Newstead Abbey on 24th April
• Travel Lodge, from Portland College on 24th April
• Newstead Abbey, from Travel Lodge on 25th April

Registration will be open in 2026

During this event, Geoffrey Bond will talk about his latest book – Byron’s Manor: Birthplace of his poetry –  which reveals that Burgage Manor (where Byron lived as a teenager and where Geoffrey has lived for over 30 years) is the genesis of Byron’s published poetry. Inspired by his friend and neighbour, Elizabeth Pigot, Byron was encouraged to write his first four collections of poems whilst living at Burgage Manor and to have them published in nearby Newark-on-Trent. The talk will touch on what it is like to live in a Byron house  – Geoffrey has written this book in the very room where Byron wrote his early poems – and the importance of Southwell and Newark in the Byron story.