Lady Caroline Lamb A Biography [Paperback]

Lady Caroline Lamb , among Lord Byron's many lovers, stands out - vilified, portrayed as a self-destructive nymphomaniac - her true story has never been told. Now, Paul Douglass provides the first unbiased treatment of a woman whose passions and independence were incompatible with the age in which she lived. Taking into account a traumatic childhood, Douglass explores Lamb's so-called 'erotomania' and tendency towards drug abuse and madness - problems she and Byron had in common. In this portrait, she emerges as a person who sacrificed much for the welfare of a sick child, and became an artist in her own right. Douglass illuminates her novels and poetry, her literary friendships, and the lifelong support of her husband and her publisher, John Murray.Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Preface A Child of the Mist Growing Pains Coming Out Marriage Parenthood Indiscretions Byron Ireland Medea and Her Dragons Playing Byron The Music of Glenarvon Politics and Satire A Book to Offend Nobody: Graham Hamilton The Last Novel: Ada Reis Death of Byron Exile Rational and Quiet Epilogue Appendix: Who's Who Appendix: Genealogy Appendix: Brief Chronology Works Cited: Short Citation List Notes Index

Douglass s insightful biography reintroduces us to a Caroline Lamb who is emotionally damaged, often egregious, but by no means the crazed flibbertigibbet of myth. He treats her as a woman of intelligence as well as passion, and above all as a writer: a courtesy anyone who has the discipline to write three novels in overheated circumstances certainly deserves.

- Sunday Times (UK)

This professionally wrought biography provides a revisionist feminist view of a fascinating historical figure. - Booklist

...a sympathetic though unsentimental account...Douglass provides a richly textured account of 19th-century aristocratic life, with all its sordid liaisons and backstabbing. - Publishers Weekly

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