Lord Byron

Byron shared his Swiss house with Polidori, enjoying a productive friendship with Shelley, but blaming Southey for reports of sexual antics there, bringing tourists out with telescopes. Hazlitt, Byron and Shelley were part of the literary circle around Leigh Hunt (whom Byron visited in jail). Byron corresponded with Scott, admiring his works more than Coleridge’s (another correspondent) or Wordsworth’s. Goethe valued him above all other poets of his age but thought him otherwise a child. His family persuaded Moore to destroy his papers to avoid controversy. Stendhal declared his eyes the most beautiful he’d ever seen.