Description
Book SynopsisThe quintessential depiction of the Byronic hero is accompanied in this edition by a substantial selection of contextual materials, including Byron’s original draft of the play’s conclusion; influences on the poem, such as Paradise Lost, Goethe’s Faust, and Vathek; further examples of the Byronic hero from the poet’s other writings; a selection of contemporary reviews; and an excerpt from Man-Fred, a dramatic parody in which the protagonist is reimagined as a chimney-sweep.
Trade Review“With its incisive introduction, expertly annotated text, and exceptional roster of contextual materials (including rarely seen manuscript draft excerpts), this Broadview Manfred is an excellent teaching and reading edition of one of Byron’s most influential works.” — Harriet Kramer Linkin, New Mexico State University
“This edition of Manfred provides a teaching tool ideally suited to both undergraduate and graduate classrooms. The notes are clear and judicious, neither too many nor too few, and the introduction is a model of scholarship, offering vital information in clear prose. All in all, a welcome addition to the field.” — Emily Bernhard Jackson, University of Exeter
“This edition will prove a gift to teachers and students alike interested in experiencing Byron’s dark masterpiece of ‘mental theater’ in the contexts of the Byron-Shelley circle, the Gothic, Romantic Satanism, and Prometheanism, as well as the play’s manuscript, reception, and theatrical histories. The accessible and lively introduction provides an engaging sketch of Byron’s biography and prepares the reader to encounter the radical autonomy of the Byronic hero in this dramatic poem’s exploration of isolation, incest, and irreligion.” — Dan White, University of Toronto
“This lucidly annotated edition of Byron’s Manfred, with essential documents reflecting the play’s composition, literary antecedents, and reception, will give students just what they need to appreciate this rich and notoriously iconoclastic text.” — Alan Richardson, Boston College
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Manfred
- In Context
-
Manfred’s Original Third Act
- Literary Contexts
- from John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667)
- from Anne Radcliffe, The Italian (1797)
- from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part One (1808)
- from Horace Walpole, The Mysterious Mother (1768)
- from William Beckford, Vathek (1786)
- Byron’s Other Writings
- Selected Letters to Augusta Leigh
- from The Corsair: A Tale (1814)
- “Prometheus” (1816)
- from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto the Third (1816)
- Responses to Manfred
- Contemporary English reviews from The British Critic and Quarterly Theological Review (July 1817)
- from William Roberts, The British Review, and London Critical Journal (August 1817)
- from Francis Jeffrey, review of Manfred, The Edinburgh Review or Critical Journal (August 1817)
- from anonymous review of Manfred, The Gentleman’s Magazine (July 1817)
- from anonymous review of Manfred, The Lady’s Monthly Museum (August 1817)
- from anonymous review of Manfred, The Literary Gazette (June 1817)
- from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, review of Manfred, Über Kunst und Altertum (1820, written 1817)
- from Man-Fred (1834)
- from Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and Nobody (1883–91)
