Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Lord George Gordon Byron
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Type of Plot: Picaresque
- Time of Work: Middle Ages
- Setting: Europe
- Genres: Poetry, Picaresque fiction, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Europe or Europeans, Autobiography, Poetry or poets, Antiheroes, Heroes or heroism, Romanticism, Middle Ages, Rome
- Locales: Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium
Characters Discussed
Childe Harold, a wandering young man. the term “childe,” in medieval English, denoted a young man of the noble classes, about to enter knighthood. Harold begins the story as a rather desperate young man, engaged mostly in debauchery and drunkenness. He leaves England (“Albion’s land”) in a quest for truth about the world, or at least about himself. He travels by sea to Portugal, Spain, France, and Germany, and finally Greece and Italy. Throughout the journey, he is bewildered about the truth and never quite finds his way. He begins to find his way...
[The entire page is 763 words long]
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