Lord Byron
1788-1824

In 1818 he wrote Mazeppa and began Don Juan, the first two cantos of which were published anonymously in 1819 by John Murray, and which were denounced in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine as “filthy and impious”. They were, however, much admired by Goethe, a fact which Byron found greatly encouraging.

Illustration from Don Juan
Illustration from Don Juan