Lord Byron's marriage with Annabella fractures ...
And now Annabella
(Lady Byron) was alone with her infant daughter, Ada. It was not long before
she met Caroline Lamb (Byron’s earlier lover, the author of Glenarvon), who told Annabella about
“other crimes” Byron had committed—sexual crimes (as defined in early
nineteenth-century England), including the possibility of homosexuality along
with incest.[1]
By mid-April,
1816, Bryon had signed a separation agreement with Annabella. Soon, Claire
Clarimont would enter the picture (and his bed chamber), and he would be off to
Switzerland and Frankenstein and
Greece and the Grim Reaper.
Deeply depressed,
Annabella turned to philanthropy (among other pursuits), founded the first
infant school in England, and threw herself into the education of her daughter,
a child who turned out to be a prodigiously talented mathematician. Today, many
credit her for pioneering the work that has led to our own digital age.
The rest of Julia
Marcus’ very fine book—Lady Byron and Her
Daughters—deals with the post-Byron years, years which, though interesting,
don’t directly apply to the story of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the story I’m
supposed to be pursuing here. Annabella became friends with Harriet Beecher
Stowe, and Henry James pops in the story somewhat after her death on May 16,
1860. Marcus has done a wonderful job of restoring Lady Byron’s story (assiduously
wiping away the smudges left by other biographers).
But one more thing
before we go: Lord Byron’s memoirs. And what a sad tale those are …
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