Don Juan

Often acknowledged as Byron's masterpiece, "Don Juan" is an epic poem, comprised of seventeen cantos, which follows an irreverent young man on his European adventures and reflects upon many of the experiences universal to man. From a forbidden love affair in Spain to exile in Italy, from being shipwrecked in Greece to slavery in Russia, Don Juan's adventures provide Byron with an exquisite framework of high drama to discuss and often mock Western societies with coarse humor and extreme satire. Interwoven in this innovative work are Byron's discussions on such topics as social convention, war, and, perhaps most significantly, human nature, with a vindication of all of natural man's gracious and ignoble impulses, in an elaborate and memorable criticism of modern human life.