Where did you learn all these secrets? I would like to go to school there. (Shelley, letter to Byron, May 26, 1820). Shelley wrote this letter after just reading the first part of Byron's comic masterpiece Don Juan. Byron had learned many secrets from what some would call the "school of life." The book you have in your hands deals with what the poet learned there – and what we can learn from him.

We must admit from the outset that Byron is not convinced that we can accept life lessons from books. “Who ever changed from books?” he would say. “The reading or not of a book will never hold down a petticoat.” [...] Despite his skepticism about what writing could achieve, he explained that he wrote “as a means to influence the minds of people – a power in itself, but also in its consequences.” In this book, I will explore some ways in which this power could be understood and utilized.

It might be better if this particular book were called Lessons in Life from Byron, rather than By Byron. For this poet, a lesson is not something that is transmitted. It resembles more a language that one can learn, a way of life and addressing the world: “She gave a lesson in her language.” Speaking of Byron is like putting ourselves in a process of learning in unpredictable ways. A new language, as he himself suggests, can provide a new repertoire of life.

(from the introduction by Matthew Bevis)