Don Juan

Lord Byron's satirical masterpiece, an epic poem which mimics legendary folklore, is presented here complete for the reader's enjoyment. First published in 1824 to great fanfare, Lord Byron's Don Juan is a comic reworking of the legend of the same name. In an amusing twist, Byron has Don Juan not as a womaniser, but as a man who easily falls prey to various seductresses. This single alteration gives Byron much opportunity for humour, being as Don Juan's plot is riddled with his affairs with many women. At the opening of the text Byron famously mocks Robert Southey, a contemporary Romantic poet who held the esteemed title of Poet Laureate for three decades. The barbed verses mock and skewer what Byron viewed as inadequacies in his rival's form, which Byron himself liberally quotes and maligns. On publication, Don Juan received a generally warm reception for its strident commitment to humour. Over the years the work became considered as one of the foremost achievements of Romantic-era poetry.