Making of the Poets: Byron and Shelley in Their Time

[Byron, Lord / Shelley] Gilmour, Ian. The Making of the Poets Byron and Shelley in their Time. London, Chatto & Windus, 2002. 16 cm x 24 cm. XIII, 402 pages with illustrations. Original Hardcover with original dustjacket in protective collector's mylar. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Includes for example the following contents:- The Byrons and Gordons / Childhood in Aberdeen / The Shelleys and Field Place / Isleworth and Dulwich / Harrow and Eton / Eton and Harrow / Oxford and Cambridge / Cambridge and Oxford / Post-University Blues I / Post-University Blues II / Poetic Madness / Byron's Grand Tour / Return and Luddism / Marriage and Exile / Maiden Speeches etc. Both Byron and Shelley died young. By the time Byron left Harrow, almost half his life was over; and when Shelley left Eton, three-fifths of his life was gone. Ian Gilmour has concentrated on the two poets in their youth, and has told their stories in tandem. Their formative years were packed with incident and had a decisive influence on the later lives of them both. As an historian, Gilmour provides a colourful account of the political, social and economic background to their writings. Byron and Shelley lived in the stormy age of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the post-Napoleon reaction. They became close friends, and though they are usually thought to have been very different from each other, Gilmour shows that they had much more in common than is usually recognised. (Amazon).