Records Of Shelley Byron And The

“In ‘his’ Byron and Shelley [Trelawny] created two figures that in their compelling solidity are fit to stand alongside any literary memoir short of Boswell’s Johnson.” —David Crane, Lord Byron’s Jackal “Your portrait of Shelley is full of truth—it is him in all his unaffectedness, in his simple tastes so fond of woods, seas, lakes, mountains; of birds and of music. There was in his manner of speaking, a touch of the woman, even of the girl…that appears most vividly in your description.” —Claire Clairmont, Letter to Trelawny

Edward John Trelawny (1792-1881) was born into a well-established family from Cornwall. He passed a miserable childhood, and at the age of thirteen was enrolled by his father in the British navy. Discharged without a commission after a decade, Trelawny found his way to Italy, where he became part of the circle of expatriates around Byron and Shelley. He fought in the Greek War of Independence, during which he survived an assassination attempt, and wrote a notoriously unreliable but enormously successful autobiography, Adventures of a Younger Son, as well as his celebrated reminiscences of Shelley and Byron. Trelawny is buried beside Shelley in the English Cemetery in Rome.

Anne Barton is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. She is the author of Essays, Mainly Shakespearean.