Crane, David. The Kindness of Sisters: Annabella Milbanke & the Destruction of the Byrons.(Book Review)(Brief Article)

Knopf. 2002. c.320p. photogs. ISBN 0-375-40648-4. $26.95. LIT

A dashing figure in the context of his times, Romantic poet Lord Byron was born into a tempestuous, aristocratic family and seemed genetically predisposed toward melancholy, debauchery, and uncontrollable impulses. At the heart of this biography lies the lifelong animosity between the two most important women in Byron's life, who only met two years after his death. The poet had a lifelong affair with Augusta, his half-sister, who gave birth to a daughter assumed to be Byron's. Annabella, the poet's society wife, also bore him a daughter. Both …