Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron

Trelawny's vivid eyewitness memoir is an indispensable source on the final months of these two great Romantic poets.

Trelawny's Recollections (1858) recounts the final months of the great Romantic poets Shelley and Byron. Drawing on his own eye-witness observations and personal experiences, Trelawny describes the poets' unconventional expatriate lifestyle in Italy, Shelley's death at sea and Byron's last illness during the Greek War of Independence.The biographer and novelist E. J. Trelawny (1792–1881) published Recollections in 1858. It is a memoir of the time Trelawny spent in the Mediterranean with the Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) and Lord Byron (1788–1824) from 1822 until the early deaths of both poets. Trelawny's vivid and personal account quickly became popular, comfortably out-selling other biographies, and was republished in 1878 under the title Records of Shelley, Byron and the Author. The work, based on Trelawny's notes and correspondence, describes their expatriate lifestyle in Italy, Shelley's sudden tragic death at sea, Byron's support for the Greek War of Independence, and his death. It is an indispensable source about the final months of Shelley and Byron's intense and unconventional lives, providing eye-witness details and intimate knowledge of two of England's greatest Romantic poets.