Jerome McGann is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at the University of Virginia. He is the editor of Byron's Complete Poetical Works (seven volumes, 1980–1993) and is one of the leading authorities on Romanticism and its aftermath. This book is a major addition to his influential argument for a 'Literature of Knowledge', which he first outlined in his 1989 Clark Lectures (Trinity College, Cambridge) and Carpenter Lectures (University of Chicago).

• 1. Don Juan and the English language; 2. Byron Agonistes, 1809–1816; 3. Manfred: one word for mercy; 4. Byron and the 'Wrong Revolutionary Poetical System'; 5. Byron, Blake, and the adversity of poetics; 6. The stubborn foe: bad verse and the poetry of action.

'A new book by Jerome McGann is an event, though there have been many such events over his long career. But a new book by him about Byron is a special kind of event. No other scholar has done as much for Byron as McGann has, and few living scholars as much for any single author as he has done for Byron. This book marks a kind of return to origins since, like McGann's first book, Fiery Dust, this one focuses on Byron's work before Don Juan. The new emphasis, however, falls on Byron's relationship to language and poetic craft and on how it differs from that of his major contemporaries. Playful, allusive, and itself 'adverse,' McGann's style in this book, like Byron's own, means to set our language free.' James K. Chandler, William K. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago

Jerome McGann is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at the University of Virginia. He is the editor of Byron's Complete Poetical Works (seven volumes, 1980–1993) and is one of the leading authorities on Romanticism and its aftermath. This book is a major addition to his influential argument for a 'Literature of Knowledge', which he first outlined in his 1989 Clark Lectures (Trinity College, Cambridge) and Carpenter Lectures (University of Chicago).

• 1. Don Juan and the English language; 2. Byron Agonistes, 1809–1816; 3. Manfred: one word for mercy; 4. Byron and the 'Wrong Revolutionary Poetical System'; 5. Byron, Blake, and the adversity of poetics; 6. The stubborn foe: bad verse and the poetry of action.

'A new book by Jerome McGann is an event, though there have been many such events over his long career. But a new book by him about Byron is a special kind of event. No other scholar has done as much for Byron as McGann has, and few living scholars as much for any single author as he has done for Byron. This book marks a kind of return to origins since, like McGann's first book, Fiery Dust, this one focuses on Byron's work before Don Juan. The new emphasis, however, falls on Byron's relationship to language and poetic craft and on how it differs from that of his major contemporaries. Playful, allusive, and itself 'adverse,' McGann's style in this book, like Byron's own, means to set our language free.' James K. Chandler, William K. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago

Jerome McGann is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at the University of Virginia. He is the editor of Byron's Complete Poetical Works (seven volumes, 1980–1993) and is one of the leading authorities on Romanticism and its aftermath. This book is a major addition to his influential argument for a 'Literature of Knowledge', which he first outlined in his 1989 Clark Lectures (Trinity College, Cambridge) and Carpenter Lectures (University of Chicago).

• 1. Don Juan and the English language; 2. Byron Agonistes, 1809–1816; 3. Manfred: one word for mercy; 4. Byron and the 'Wrong Revolutionary Poetical System'; 5. Byron, Blake, and the adversity of poetics; 6. The stubborn foe: bad verse and the poetry of action.

'A new book by Jerome McGann is an event, though there have been many such events over his long career. But a new book by him about Byron is a special kind of event. No other scholar has done as much for Byron as McGann has, and few living scholars as much for any single author as he has done for Byron. This book marks a kind of return to origins since, like McGann's first book, Fiery Dust, this one focuses on Byron's work before Don Juan. The new emphasis, however, falls on Byron's relationship to language and poetic craft and on how it differs from that of his major contemporaries. Playful, allusive, and itself 'adverse,' McGann's style in this book, like Byron's own, means to set our language free.' James K. Chandler, William K. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago