''Glenarvon'' was

Lady Caroline Lamb Lady Caroline Lamb (née Ponsonby; 13 November 1785 – 25 January 1828) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for ''Glenarvon'', a Gothic novel. In 1812 she had an affair with Lord Byron, whom she described as "mad, bad, and ...

's first novel. It created a sensation when published on 9 May 1816. Set in the Irish rebellion of 1798, the book satirized the Whig

Holland House Holland House, originally known as Cope Castle, was an early Jacobean country house in Kensington, London, situated in a country estate that is now Holland Park. It was built in 1605 by the diplomat Sir Walter Cope. The building later passed ...

circle, while casting a sceptical eye on left-wing politicking. Its rakish title character, Lord Glenarvon, is an unflattering depiction of her ex-lover,

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

Theme

Glenarvon corrupts the innocent young bride Calantha (Caroline herself) leading to their mutual ruin and death. The picture of her husband, William Lamb (the 2nd

Viscount Melbourne Viscount Melbourne, of Kilmore in the County of Cavan, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the Lamb family. This family descended from Matthew Lamb, who represented Stockbridge and Peterborough in the House of Commons. In 1755 h ...

from 1828), called Lord Avondale in the book, is more favourable, although he too is held to be partly responsible for Calantha's misfortunes: his biographer remarks that the book's message is that Caroline's troubles are everybody else's fault.

Lord David Cecil Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, CH (9 April 1902 – 1 January 1986) was a British biographer, historian, and scholar. He held the style of "Lord" by courtesy, as a younger son of a marquess. Early life and studies David Cecil was ...

(1965). ''Melbourne''. Pan Books Edition. p. 122. The book is full of wildly improbable melodramatic scenes: Calantha's infant brother, the heir to a dukedom, is apparently murdered on the orders of their aunt Lady Margaret, to ensure that her son will inherit the estates; yet later we are told that the child is still alive. Lady Caroline was unprepared for the negative reaction to ''Glenarvon''. The day after it was published, messages of outrage began to arrive. A second edition softened somewhat the book's

sensationalism In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotio ...

Impact

The book was an enormous success with the reading public, but ruined Lamb's already questionable reputation. Society's leaders did not greatly mind reading about her love affairs, but they deeply resented the vicious and easily recognisable portraits of themselves in the book, which were its chief selling point. One of those thus satirised, Lady Jersey, took her revenge by barring Lamb from

Almack's Almack's was the name of a number of establishments and social clubs in London between the 18th and 20th centuries. Two of the social clubs would go on to fame as Brooks's and Boodle's. Almack's most famous establishment was based in assembly roo ...

, the centre of fashionable life, a sign that she was socially an outcast. A Melbourne biographer remarked that Lamb never found her way back into society again.

Literary echoes

* The title character's full name is Clarence de Ruthven.

John Polidori John William Polidori (7 September 1795 – 24 August 1821) was a British writer and physician. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. His most succ ...

used a vampire named Lord Ruthven as a characterization of Lord Byron in his short story "

The Vampyre "The Vampyre" is a short work of prose fiction written in 1819 by John William Polidori taken from the story Lord Byron told as part of a contest among Polidori, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley. The same contest produced the novel '' ...

" published in 1819. *In the Regency novel '' Bath Tangle'', by

Georgette Heyer Georgette Heyer (; 16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the Regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother ...

, the heroine is sent a copy of ''Glenarvon'', which she pronounces both "the most diverting book that ever was written" and "the most absurd farrago of nonsense". After some banter about whether she is herself an innocent Calantha, a partial key to the book is offered, with Lady Morganet taken as a mix of Caroline's mother and her aunt, Lady Bessborough and the Duchess of Devonshire.G. Heyer, ''Bath Tangle'' (London 1974) p. 129

Popular culture

The New York City band Glenarvon took their name from Lamb's novel of the same name.

References

External links

Glenarvon
a
The University of Adelaide Library
closed 7 Jan. 2020
''Glenarvon''
at the

Open Library Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, ...