Byron's politics are so complicated that few have even attempted to write book-length studies about them, and Gross should be commended for even trying to take on such a bewildering complex set of issues. We emerge from his book full of insights and questions about the meaning of the term 'liberal' and the ways it might be nuanced by one's ... Read moreerotic vitality.
James Soderholm, Baylor University Byron: The Erotic Liberal is a keen biographical and critical account of Byron's politics of feeling. In such chapters as that on the narrator of Don Juan as homoerotic, Gross provokes and persuades.
Carl Woodring, Columbia University Jonathan Gross demonstrates a sound knowledge of historical contexts, cultural codes, and Byron scholarship.
Studies In Romanticism
This book is a significant contribution to Byron studies. Gross is well informed in the social and political details of Byron's English milieu, but he is also well prepared to read Byron's career as erotic liberal through the lens of contemporary gay studies and through the biblical story of Joseph. His ability to see connections between Byron and contemporary American liberalism is ingenious.
Peter Graham, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Show Less