"I read 'Glenarvon,' too, by Caro. Lamb....God damn!" - Lord Byron In 1812, Lady Caroline Lamb, wife of a prominent politician and future Prime Minister, began a tempestuous affair with Lord Byron, a liaison that shocked Lamb's contemporaries. Finally, when he became tired of Lamb, Byron cruelly broke off the relationship, and in Glenarvon (1816) Lamb sought revenge.
Set against the backdrop of the violent Irish Revolution of 1798, Glenarvon tells the story of the doomed love of the married Lady Calantha for the dashing revolutionary Lord Glenarvon. Though published anonymously, contemporary readers immediately recognised in Calantha and Glenarvon the counterparts of Lamb and Byron and in many of the minor characters satiric portraits of some of the leading lights of London high society. The novel became an instant success, going through numerous editions and resulting in Lamb's being blackballed from fashionable society.
The Valancourt Books edition includes the unabridged text of the first edition as well as Lamb's preface from the expurgated second edition. This edition also features a new introduction and notes by Deborah Lutz and an index to characters in Glenarvon and their real-life counterparts.