Introduction

28
Vanessa Mangione
(Douglass, Introduction xxix). Olney suggests that Lamb intended the novel
“primarily as an act of contrition and humility; a public confession of sin” (275),
although he is not specific as to which sins she confesses. Clubbe states that the
novel “forced itself out of her: she had to write it as much as Byron had to write
his confessional poems” (205). 17
Glenarvon was first published on the 9th of May 1816. In June, the public had
already demanded a second edition, a third edition was published in the same year
and a fourth in 1817. As already mentioned Glenarvon was considered a kiss-andtell
story of Lamb’s and Byron’s liaison, a roman à clef. 18 The novel is a curious mix
of different genres, including, the political and historical novel, novel of manners,
literary-social satire, and Gothic romance. The plot itself is generally considered to
be confused, over-complex, and absurd (Franklin xiv). Douglass even describes it
as an “angst-filled tryst and overwrought exclamation of love, pain and selfrecrimination”
that is “tiresome in its repetition” (Introduction xxxix). It tells the
story of the married Calantha, 19 a virtuous girl, who falls desperately in love with
the revolutionary Lord Glenarvon. Calantha is generally viewed to reveal more
about Lamb herself, sexually and biographically. Set against the backdrop of the
Irish revolution in 1798, bit by bit the plot evolves around Glenarvon, who in his
multiple disguises as the child-murdering Viviani and the fatalistic Glenarvon,
seduces almost every female character. He betrays them and leaves them to madness
and doom, just as he abandons his revolutionary followers who see him as
their leader in the fight for independence. Lamb not only depicts Glenarvon’s
mysterious hypnotic charm but also demonstrates the resulting dilemma for
women when they give into their desires.
In the following, the focus not only lies on Lamb’s novel but also on her life,
as she is the author who had a passionate affair with Byron and consequently with
the Byronic hero. Even more, she was the first writer who used the persona of the
Byronic hero in a novel. She thus started a new literary trend that is even nowa-
17 The notion of female writing forcing itself out is discussed in Hélène Cixous’ “The Laugh of the
Medusa”. She argues with the imagery of a volcano when discussing female writing in general.
She states that “a female text cannot fail to be more than subversive. It is volcanic; as it is written
it brings about an upheaval of the old property crust, carrier of masculine investments; there
is no other way”. Cixous sees the function of the final eruption to “smash everything, to shatter
the framework of institutions, to blow up the law, to break up with the “truth” with laughter”
(888).
18 This is justified, to some extent, since Lamb incorporated letters of Byron into the novel that
some friends of his recognized as such. As a result, it was taken as a truthful account of their affair
(Duncan Wu 143).
19 The name “Calantha” originates from John Ford’s The Broken Heart (1633). Evidence for this
assumption can be found in Glenarvon itself when Lady Augusta says: “At this moment you put
me vastly in mind of it [Ford’s tragedy]. You look most woefully. Come, tell me truly, is not
your heart in torture? And, like your namesake Calantha, while lightly dancing the gayest in the
ring, has not the shaft already been struck, and shall you not die ere you attain the goal?” (155).
The connection with Ford’s work alludes to Calantha’s tragic end.