Musing over Don Juan, Byron asked his banker and agent Douglas Kinnaird a rhetorical question: 'Could any man have written it - who has not lived in the world? - and tooled in a post-chaise? in a hackney coach? in a gondola? against a wall? in a court carriage? in a vis à vis? - on a table - and under it?'

LRB 6 October 1994 | PDF Download