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Article: Trelawney: the lay of the jackal; Lord Byron's Jackal - A Life of Edward John Trelawny. By David Crane (H arper Collins, pounds 19.99). Reviewed by Richard Edmonds.
- Article from:
- The Birmingham Post (England)
- Article date:
- July 25, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Birmingham Post & Mail Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The marvellous title of this book comes from a quote by Joseph Severn, the artist friend of John Keats, and it runs thus:
"There is a mad chap come here, whose name is Trelawny. He comes as the friend of Shelley, great, glowing, and rich in romance. I ought to have seen that this - Lord Byron's jackal - was rather weak in all the points I could judge, though strong enough i n stilettos. But who is this odd fish? They talk of him here as a chameleon who went mad on reading Lord Byron's Corsair ."
It is difficult to live up to that - indeed, only a mad man ...