Book finished: Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land
11/12/2014
After reading about Hermes Trismegistus I was reminded again of my resolution made while reading about Frances Yates, to look up the author at left again.
Here we have a work from 2005. It has a nested structure, in which a set of emails relate the discovery of papers belonging to Ada Lovelace, computing pioneer and daughter of Lord Byron. She in turn relates obtaining papers belonging to her father, implying the existence of a novel by him, hitherto unknown. (Apparently Byron is known only ever to have written poetic works.) This is all interleaved with chapters from the "novel" itself, which on another level of nesting, is full of incidents and characters based on his own life. Thus the author has Byron commenting on his own life, with comments on the manuscript and his life by Ada, and comments on Byron, the novel, Ada's life, and the unveiling of the novel from the present-day protagonists. It is all rather neatly done, and the reader is presented with plenty of events whose working-out keep up the interest. |
Crowley has done well in keeping Byron's novel stylistically apt, so much so that I felt ofttimes my literary impulses, nay, my very utterances were wont to follow in that lengthy, yes, even parenthetical, style. This is not good, as I have my own tendencies in that direction.
It was interesting that there was nothing that reminded me of other works by Crowley I have read.
I also had my interest in Byron himself stimulated, though not to the extent of actually reading any of his acclaimed works. I have seen enough to know they are hard work for a modern reader.
I found this an enjoyable read, and fuel for thought on the nature of fame, fortune and fate.
Update 23/05/2015 - I have just stumbled upon a website which relates to a plot element of "Byron's novel". See my blog page regarding Sworn Virgins of Albania.
It was interesting that there was nothing that reminded me of other works by Crowley I have read.
I also had my interest in Byron himself stimulated, though not to the extent of actually reading any of his acclaimed works. I have seen enough to know they are hard work for a modern reader.
I found this an enjoyable read, and fuel for thought on the nature of fame, fortune and fate.
Update 23/05/2015 - I have just stumbled upon a website which relates to a plot element of "Byron's novel". See my blog page regarding Sworn Virgins of Albania.
Read as an e-book on my Kobo Touch e-reader.