Don Juan

Byron's Don Juan is one of the liveliest, funniest, and most audacious long poems in the English language. Here presented complete and unabridged, all sixteen cantos appear exactly as Byron left them, from Juan's mischievous upbringing in Seville and the shipwreck that throws him into the arms of Haidée, through the slave markets of Constantinople, the court of Catherine the Great, and the drawing rooms of scandal-haunted England. Along the way, the poet pauses to tease his critics, skewer his fellow poets, and muse on love, hypocrisy, and the absurdity of human affairs. This edition pairs the full original text with a new introduction and reader's notes that illuminate the poem's composition, its scandalous reception, and its sparkling ottava rima, welcoming both first-time readers and returning admirers. Witty, tender, and endlessly quotable, Don Juan remains a triumph of comic genius. Part of The Founding Texts Library.