LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
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Astarte: a Fragment of Truth
Lord Byron to Lady Byron, 31 December 1819
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Introduction
Preface
Contents
I. Byron Characteristics
II. Three Stages of Lord Byron’s Life
III. Manfred
IV. Correspondence of Augusta Byron
V. Anne Isabella Byron
VI. Lady Byron’s Policy of Silence
VII. Informers and Defamers
VIII. “When We Dead Awake”
IX. Lady Byron and Mrs. Leigh (I)
X. Lady Byron and Mrs. Leigh (II)
XI. Byron and Augusta
Notes by the Editor
Appendix
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Augusta can tell you all about me & mine if you think either worth the enquiry;—But the object of my writing is to come———

“It is this.—I saw Moore three months ago and gave to his care—a long Memoir written up to the Summer of 1816, of my life—which I had been writing since I left England.—It will not be published till after my death—and in fact it is a ‘Memoir’ and not ‘confessions’ I have omitted the most important & decisive events and passions of my existence not to compromise otherss.—But it is not so with the part you occupy—which is long and minute—and I could wish you to see, read—and mark any part or parts that do not appear to coincide with the truth.—The truth I have always stated—but there are two ways of looking at it—and your way may be not mine.—I have never revised the paperss since they were written—You may read them—and mark what you
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please—I wish you [to] know what I think and say of you & yourss.—You will find nothing to flatter you—nothing to lead you to the most remote suppossition that we could ever have been—or be happy together.—But I do not choosse to give to another generation statements which we cannot arise from the dust to prove or disprove—without letting you see fairly & fully what I look upon you to have been—and what I depict you as being.—If seeing this—you can detect what is false—or answer what is charged—do so—your mark—shall not be erased.———

“You will perhaps say why write my life?—Alas! I say so too—but they who have traduced it—& blasted it—and branded me—should know—that it is they—and not I—are the cause—It is no great pleasure to have lived—and less to live over again the details of existence—but the last becomes sometimes a necessity and even a duty.—

“If you choosse to see this you may—if you do not—you have at least had the option”1

[Finished] January 1st—[1820].