Childish Loves: A Novel

Book excerpt: "Byron sets off for Greece, after the failure of his involvement in the Italian revolution, to fight for Greek independence. His relationship with Countess Guicciolli has declined, on his side at least, into an affection which seems indistinguishable from the absence of true feeling. He has wasted his passion for life; for men, for children, for his sister, for his own childhood. There is nothing left. He is sailing away to die. On arrival in Greece, one of the boys sent to serve him catches his eye. It strikes him as indicative of his decline in reputation and increase in age that nothing in his person or personality can interest the child. The boy's indifference soon enflames Byron into stronger desires. Wooing the pretty Greek boy, as Byron lies dying, becomes a test not only of his gift for winning the world round to him, as he always could, but of his own ability to feel again, and its corollary: to write." -- Publisher description.