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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
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(1812–18) The poem which made *Byron's reputation and launched on the world the Byronic hero – a moody and rebellious character, Byron himself in real life and Childe Harold in this autobiographical poem. Written in the verse form of Spenser's *Faerie Queene, and with its title and opening sections mock-medieval in spirit ('Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth... Childe Harold was he hight'), it soon settles down into a richly detailed account of a young man's responses to some of the most romantic places in Europe, all recently visited by Byron. The first two cantos were an instant success in 1812 ('I awoke one morning and found myself famous'). Cantos 3 and 4 followed in 1816 and 1818.
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