Summary Canto XIV begins with some “editorializing” on Byron’s part. Man has no certainties in life, a fact which is proved by the proliferation of philosophical systems, which contradict each other. But what is the purpose of these skeptical speculations, he hears the reader ask him. His only excuse is, […]
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Summary Among the friends made by Don Juan are Lord Henry Amundeville and his wife Lady Adeline. Lady Adeline is highborn, wealthy in her own right, and beautiful. She is The fair most fatal Juan ever met, Although she was not evil nor meant ill; But Destiny and Passion spread […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto XIIISummary and Analysis Canto XII
Summary Canto XII begins with a fourteen-stanza meditation on the misery of middle age (Byron is now thirty-five, he tells the reader in Stanza 2) and the pleasures of money, which Byron ironically sings the praises of. Money rules the world and even rules love. This meditation is followed by […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto XIISummary and Analysis Canto XI
Summary Don Juan gets out of his carriage and walks behind it in order to get a general view of London. As he meditates on what a law-abiding city London is, a knife is flashed in his face and a voice cries, “Your money or your life.” Impulsively, he draws […]
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Summary In Russia Juan becomes a polished Russian courtier and in the process also becomes a little dissipated. He lives “in a hurry / Of waste, and haste, and glare, and gloss, and glitter” (St. 26). He writes to relatives in Spain about his present circumstances. They answer promptly, impressed […]
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Summary The first ten stanzas are an attack on Wellington, who has won the Battle of Waterloo and has been richly rewarded by England for his victory. He should not have accepted the gifts his country lavished on him, Byron thinks; he should have been satisfied with thanks, like Epaminondas, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto IXSummary and Analysis Canto VIII
Summary The storming of Ismail begins with a Russian artillery barrage, which is soon answered from within the fortress. The Russian columns are ordered to attack and the slaughter commences. Instead of attempting to describe the battle in detail, Byron concentrates on the fortunes of Juan and Johnson, who are […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto VIIISummary and Analysis Canto VII
Summary Canto VII, one of the shortest in Don Juan, is primarily an introduction to Canto VIII, in which Byron describes the Battle of Ismail. In the first seven stanzas Byron defends himself against those critics of Don Juan who accuse the poet of “A tendency to under-rate and scoff […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Canto VIISummary and Analysis Canto VI
Summary Canto VI is a continuation of the story of Juan in the harem. Since there is no bed available for Juan at the moment, the “Mother of the Maids,” who is in charge of the harem, decides that “Juanna” will have to share the bed of Dudji, a pretty […]
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Summary In the slave market of Constantinople, Don Juan meets Johnson, an Englishman who had been a mercenary in the Russian army and who had been wounded and captured by the Turks. Johnson freely tells Juan about his wife trouble, just as Byron would tell casual visitors about his own […]
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