George Gordon, Lord Byron, was one of the leading figures of British Romanticism. The Byronic hero he gave his name to--the charming, dashing, rebellious outsider--remains a powerful literary archetype. Byron was known for his unconventional character and his extravagant and flamboyant lifestyle: he had numerous scandalous love affairs, including with his half-sister Augusta Leigh. Lady Caroline Lamb, one of his lovers, famously described him as "mad,...