 First edition (publ. Hutchinson)Cover art: William Blake, "The Agony in the Garden", c 1799-1800 | |
| Author | Anthony Burgess |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Hutchinson Publishing |
| Publication date | January 1, 1995 |
| ISBN | 978-0-091-79204-6 |
Byrne is the last novel by the English author Anthony Burgess, published posthumously in 1995.
Composed mostly in the same ottava rima stanzas that Byron used for his Don Juan, the story follows the fortunes of Michael Byrne, an Irishman with some Spanish ancestors who settled in Ireland after a war between England's Royal Navy and the Spanish Armada in the 16th century.
He thought he was a kind of living myth
— Part One, stanza 2
And hence deserving of ottava rima,
The scheme that Ariosto juggled with,
Apt for a lecherous defective dreamer.
He'd have preferred a stronger-muscled smith,
Anvilling rhymes amid poetic steam, a
Sort of Lord Byron. Byron was long dead.
This poetaster had to do instead.
A painter and composer whose career is never as spectacular as his ambitions, and a determined womanizer who fathers children across the globe, Byrne becomes embroiled with the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany.
A heavy task, but there was light relief
— Part One, stanza 103
In the Germanic ambience, boisterous, brash,
Torchlit parades and pogroms, guttural grief
In emigration queues, the smash and crash
Of pawnshop windows by insentient beef
In uniform, the gush of beer, the splash
Of schnapps, the joy of being drunk and Aryan,
Though Hitler was a teetotalitarian.
Eventually he vanishes, presumed dead in Africa. But years later, his twin sons, now middle-aged, one a doubting priest, the other suffering from a debilitating disease, receive from Byrne, who is still alive, an invitation to London, where he will read his last will and testament.
References
- Birch, Dinah, ed. (2011), "Burgess, Anthony", The Oxford Companion to English Literature (online ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-280687-1, archived from the original on 25 August 2024, retrieved 20 June 2011
- "Byrne by Anthony Burgess". Publishers Weekly. 1 September 1997. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- Biswell, Andrew (25 January 2003). "Artifice and insemination". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- "Byrne". Booklist. 1 September 1997. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- "Byrne". Kirkus Reviews. 15 July 1997. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- Burgess, Anthony (1995). Byrne. New York: Carroll & Graf. p. 5. ISBN 078670456X.
- Burgess, Anthony (1995). Byrne. New York: Carroll & Graf. p. 30. ISBN 078670456X.
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