Home Literary Studies 18. Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818)
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18. Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818)

  • Ralf Haekel
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Handbook of British Travel Writing
This chapter is in the book Handbook of British Travel Writing

Abstract

Although not Lord Byron’s masterpiece - a title which is reserved for Don Juan -, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage is the poem that made its author famous. It features the first instance of the Byronic Hero, the theatrical and medial figure that was, by the author’s contemporary readership, immediately associated with Byron himself and which lies at the heart of Romantic Byronism. While it is not exactly a work of travel literature - in the sense that it is not a factual prose account written in the first person by the one who undertook the journey -, the poem’s four cantos are indeed based on Byron’s own travels, and both the narrator as well as Harold were identified with the author right away. Differing from literary works that mimic the genre of the travelogue - such as Thomas More’s Utopia, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, or Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (↗ 9 Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe and Tour Thro’ The Whole Island of Great Britain) -, Byron’s Childe Harold is a fictitious account of a real voyage, and it thus effectually closes, as this chapter will argue, the gap between travel writing and literature. Written and published between 1812 and 1818, recent scholarship discusses the poem as partaking in, and reacting to, the emerging discourse of modernity, and the present chapter will introduce two readings of the poem in the light of, first, celebrity culture and, second, colonialism and imperialism.

Abstract

Although not Lord Byron’s masterpiece - a title which is reserved for Don Juan -, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage is the poem that made its author famous. It features the first instance of the Byronic Hero, the theatrical and medial figure that was, by the author’s contemporary readership, immediately associated with Byron himself and which lies at the heart of Romantic Byronism. While it is not exactly a work of travel literature - in the sense that it is not a factual prose account written in the first person by the one who undertook the journey -, the poem’s four cantos are indeed based on Byron’s own travels, and both the narrator as well as Harold were identified with the author right away. Differing from literary works that mimic the genre of the travelogue - such as Thomas More’s Utopia, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, or Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (↗ 9 Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe and Tour Thro’ The Whole Island of Great Britain) -, Byron’s Childe Harold is a fictitious account of a real voyage, and it thus effectually closes, as this chapter will argue, the gap between travel writing and literature. Written and published between 1812 and 1818, recent scholarship discusses the poem as partaking in, and reacting to, the emerging discourse of modernity, and the present chapter will introduce two readings of the poem in the light of, first, celebrity culture and, second, colonialism and imperialism.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Periods of Travel Writing 11
  7. 2. Discourses of Travel Writing 31
  8. 3. Gender 55
  9. 4. Travel Writing and Translation 79
  10. 5. Practices and Purposes 95
  11. 6. Intertextual Travel Writing 113
  12. 7. The Market for Travel Writing 125
  13. Part II: Close Readings
  14. 8. Walter Ralegh, The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana (1596) 145
  15. 9. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Tour Thro’ The Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–1727) 161
  16. 10. Samuel Johnson, A Voyage to Abyssinia (1735) 181
  17. 11. Thomas Pennant, Selected Works (1754–1804) 199
  18. 12. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters (1763) 213
  19. 13. James Boswell, Journals and Letters from his Grand Tour (1764–1765) 231
  20. 14. James Cook and George Forster, Journals and Travel Reports from Their “Voyage Round the World” (1777) 247
  21. 15. Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796) 267
  22. 16. Mariana Starke, Letters from Italy (1800) 297
  23. 17. Maria Graham, Travel Writing on India, Italy, Brazil, and Chile (1812–1824) 313
  24. 18. Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818) 335
  25. 19. Anna Jameson, Selected Works (1826–1859) 357
  26. 20. Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (1839) 373
  27. 21. Isabella Bird, Selected Works (1856–1899) 397
  28. 22. Mary Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (1897) and West African Studies (1899) 411
  29. 23. Vita Sackville-West, Selected Works (1926, 1928) 433
  30. 24. Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana (1937) 449
  31. 25. Freya Stark, Selected Works (1938–1988) 467
  32. 26. W. H. Auden, Journey to a War (1939) 485
  33. 27. V. S. Naipaul, Selected Works (1962–1998) 501
  34. 28. Dervla Murphy, Selected Works (1965–2015) 515
  35. 29. William Dalrymple, Selected Works (1989–1997) 535
  36. 30. Nicholas Crane, Two Degrees West (1999) and Great British Journeys (2007) 555
  37. 31. Robert Macfarlane, The Wild Places (2007) 575
  38. Index of Names and Works 595
  39. Index of Subjects and Places 609
  40. List of Contributors 617
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110498974-019

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Periods of Travel Writing 11
  7. 2. Discourses of Travel Writing 31
  8. 3. Gender 55
  9. 4. Travel Writing and Translation 79
  10. 5. Practices and Purposes 95
  11. 6. Intertextual Travel Writing 113
  12. 7. The Market for Travel Writing 125
  13. Part II: Close Readings
  14. 8. Walter Ralegh, The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana (1596) 145
  15. 9. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Tour Thro’ The Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–1727) 161
  16. 10. Samuel Johnson, A Voyage to Abyssinia (1735) 181
  17. 11. Thomas Pennant, Selected Works (1754–1804) 199
  18. 12. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters (1763) 213
  19. 13. James Boswell, Journals and Letters from his Grand Tour (1764–1765) 231
  20. 14. James Cook and George Forster, Journals and Travel Reports from Their “Voyage Round the World” (1777) 247
  21. 15. Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796) 267
  22. 16. Mariana Starke, Letters from Italy (1800) 297
  23. 17. Maria Graham, Travel Writing on India, Italy, Brazil, and Chile (1812–1824) 313
  24. 18. Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818) 335
  25. 19. Anna Jameson, Selected Works (1826–1859) 357
  26. 20. Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (1839) 373
  27. 21. Isabella Bird, Selected Works (1856–1899) 397
  28. 22. Mary Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (1897) and West African Studies (1899) 411
  29. 23. Vita Sackville-West, Selected Works (1926, 1928) 433
  30. 24. Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana (1937) 449
  31. 25. Freya Stark, Selected Works (1938–1988) 467
  32. 26. W. H. Auden, Journey to a War (1939) 485
  33. 27. V. S. Naipaul, Selected Works (1962–1998) 501
  34. 28. Dervla Murphy, Selected Works (1965–2015) 515
  35. 29. William Dalrymple, Selected Works (1989–1997) 535
  36. 30. Nicholas Crane, Two Degrees West (1999) and Great British Journeys (2007) 555
  37. 31. Robert Macfarlane, The Wild Places (2007) 575
  38. Index of Names and Works 595
  39. Index of Subjects and Places 609
  40. List of Contributors 617
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