Lady Caroline Lamb A free spirit

Famous for christening notorious Lothario and poet Lord Byron, "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know," author Lady Caroline Lamb was a scandalous figure in early-nineteenthcentury British society. Born in 1785 to a mother known for her romantic dalliances, Caroline was charismatic and bold. As a young teen, she fell desperately in love with William Lamb, heir to a title and a man with political aspirations, and married him when she turned 19. Their union produced one surviving son and overall seemed to be blissful, but that didn't prevent the passionate Caroline from engaging in affairs, most famously with Lord Byron. His poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, first inflamed her, and their meeting led to an ardent involvement that, despite its brevity, haunted Caroline for the rest of her life. After Byron spurned her, she wrote a novel inspired by their affair, Glenarvon, that became a best-seller. Readers will not want to miss this lively biography from distinguished historian and novelist Fraser (The Case of the Married Woman, 2022), who deems it the "culmination of an exciting and fulfilling life spent studying History."

Historian Fraser (The Case of the Married Woman) seeks in this concise and revealing biography to bring Anglo-Irish writer and socialite Caroline Lamb née Ponsonby (1785--1828) out of the shadows cast by her husband, William Lamb, who served as prime minister after her death, and her lover, the poet Lord Byron. "Elfin" and fond of dressing as a pageboy, Caroline was born into an aristocratic family and exhibited "a certain tempestuous quality" from a young age. Married at 19, she was by all accounts "enchanted" with Lamb, and even sneaked into the House of Commons dressed as a man to hear him deliver his first speech. But their domestic life was complicated by the health struggles and learning difficulties of their son, Augustus. In 1812, Caroline embarked on a tumultuous and very public affair with Lord Byron, many details of which made their way into her titillating debut novel, Glenarvon. Though Caroline remains somewhat of an enigma, Fraser shines a well-deserved spotlight on her literary ambitions and achievements and offers valuable insights on the political and religious rivalries of the era and the fraught question of Irish independence. It's a worthwhile portrait of a woman who defied convention. (June)

A modern reconsideration of the notorious life and career of the early-19th-century Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist. Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828) has been the subject of countless works of literature and film adaptations, her place in history both illuminated and sullied by her affair with Lord Byron. Fraser, the celebrated biographer and novelist, delivers a lean yet spirited account, offering further nuance to Lamb's story within the thorny aristocratic society she inhabited. Narrated with dramatic verve and wit, this is ripe material for a potential TV series. Early on, Fraser establishes Lamb's restless nature and eccentricities as well as her strengths. At an early age, she enjoyed a great deal of freedom, and she was exceptionally creative, well read, and multilingual. She was also remarkably caring toward those less fortunate and forward-thinking regarding women's rights, occasionally disguising herself as a pageboy to gain entrance into male establishments. Because Lamb was prone to emotional outbreaks, Fraser conjectures that she perhaps was bipolar. At 19, she fell in love with and married William Lamb, an up-and-coming politician (he later became Lord Melbourne and prime minister). Within a few years of their marriage, Caroline got entangled in a brief yet passionate love affair with Lord Byron that would consume much of her future existence. In scrutinizing the scandalous nature of Lamb's behavior, Fraser asserts how criticism reflected less on her extramarital activity, conduct that ran rampant among this society, than on her uninhibited publicizing of the affair, spotlighted in her anonymously published novel Glenarvon, a Gothic romance with thinly veiled portraits of Byron and herself. "It was the obvious connection with Lord Byron, calling attention to Caroline's famous romance, which outraged the grand Whig ladies, themselves involved in endless extramarital affairs, to say nothing of mothering children by their lovers," writes Fraser. "She refused to abide by the Whig code of maximum discretion--and maximum dissipation." A shrewd and sympathetic portrait of a fascinating, complex "modern" woman. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.