On this day in 1814 Lord Byron's "The Corsair" was published, selling out its entire first run of 10,000 copies. The poem was one of a handful of melodramatic verse-tales written by Byron between 1812-16, a period in which he was at the height of poetic fame in England. Pirate captain Conrad is the Byronic homme fatale, one who will risk all, including his beloved Medora, in order to rescue Gulnare, chief slave in the Turkish Pacha's harem, although he will not stoop to kill the sleeping Pacha in order to rescue himself. By this specific chivalry, and a life of dash and passion, "He left a Corsair's name to other times, / Linked with one virtue and a thousand crimes ... FULL STORY »
