Lord Byron: When Poetry's Greatest Rebel Made All of England Scandalized

Lord Byron was the rockstar of 19th-century literature - brilliant, beautiful, tragic, and absolutely determined to shock Victorian society at every opportunity. He kept a pet bear at Cambridge University (because keeping dogs was against the rules, but bears weren't specifically mentioned). He had scandalous affairs that destroyed reputations and families. He allegedly slept with men and women indiscriminately, possibly including his own half-sister. He published poetry so brilliant and transgressive that he became instantly famous, then had to flee England in disgrace at age 24, never to return.

Byron's life was a deliberate rejection of propriety. He arrived at Cambridge with his bear (supposedly named Bruin, who had his own college roo ...