Don Juan is an epic satirical poem that reinterprets the legendary figure of Don Juan as a young, naive, and passive adventurer who becomes involved in various romantic and adventurous exploits more by circumstance than by intent. The poem opens with Juan’s early life in Seville, where his strict upbringing by his mother Donna Inez contrasts sharply with his eventual affair with Donna Julia, a married woman. This scandal forces Juan to flee, setting him on a series of adventures across Europe and beyond.
During his travels Juan is shipwrecked and captured by pirates, and then enslaved in Constantinople, where he is placed in a Sultan’s harem disguised as a woman. His journey takes him to Russia, where he becomes a favorite of Empress Catherine the Great, and later to England, where Byron satirizes British society’s pretensions and moral hypocrisies. Juan’s adventures are marked by his innocence and charm, which lead him into and out of various romantic entanglements and perilous situations.
Don Juan was published in fits and starts between 1819 and 1824, having been written during a period of personal and political turbulence for Lord Byron. Byron, known for his rebellious and controversial lifestyle, composed the poem while living in exile in Italy, having fled England due to scandals and debts. Although the poem remains unfinished, with Byron having completed only sixteen cantos before his death, Don Juan stands as a profound and humorous exploration of the absurdities and contradictions of the human condition, wrapped in the adventures of its iconic protagonist.
