Don Juan: Vol. 1

"Don Juan," Lord Byron's epic satire, is widely considered his masterpiece, though during his lifetime it was both controversial and wildly popular. Don Juan, or Don Giovanni, is a fictionalized character, largely portrayed as a libertine and a womanizer, who appears in many works from opera to literature, beginning in the mid-17th century. Byron's Don Juan (for poetic rhyme, pronounced jew-an), however, is portrayed as an innocent, who, rather than being the seducer, becomes the seduced. The poem was written and published in cantos, or poetic divisions, between 1818 and 1824 and has more than 16,000 lines of verse. Byron completed 16 cantos, leaving a 17th that was found later among his letters and journals, unfinished at his death. This volume contains cantos one through six, as well as Byron's rather scathing "dedication" to fellow poet, Robert Southey.