Don Juan (1819–1824) is Lord Byron's unfinished comic epic in sixteen cantos. Retelling the legend of the seducer as the story of an innocent young Spaniard pursued by women, it moves from Seville to a Greek island, a Turkish harem, the Russian court and England.
The story
Sent abroad after an affair with a married woman, the young Juan is shipwrecked and found by Haidée, the daughter of a Greek pirate. Their idyll ends tragically when her father returns.
Sold as a slave in Constantinople, Juan escapes, fights at the siege of Ismail, becomes the favourite of Catherine the Great and is sent on a mission to England.
A comic epic
Byron uses ottava rima, an Italian eight-line stanza, often ending with a comic couplet that deflates the drama. The narrator constantly digresses to mock poets, politicians and society.
Among the digressions, the lyric The Isles of Greece calls for Greek freedom, a cause for which Byron would die.
Publication
The first two cantos appeared in 1819 without the names of author or publisher, causing a scandal. Byron's publisher John Murray stopped after canto five, and the rest was published by John Hunt.
Byron was writing the seventeenth canto when he left for Greece, where he died at Missolonghi in 1824.
Anecdotes
Juan or Joo-un
Byron rhymes Juan with 'new one' and 'true one', so in English the name is pronounced Joo-un, not in the Spanish way.
A burnt memoir
After Byron's death, his memoirs were burned in John Murray's fireplace by his friends and publisher, to protect his reputation; Don Juan remains the most personal testimony of his wit.
Frequently asked questions
Is Don Juan finished?
No, Byron left it unfinished at canto sixteen when he died in 1824.
What verse form does it use?
Ottava rima, an eight-line Italian stanza.
How is Juan pronounced in the poem?
As Joo-un, to rhyme with English words.