Glenarvon

Glenarvon was Lady Caroline Lamb's first novel. It created a sensation when published on 9 May 1816. Set in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the book satirized the Whig Holland House circle, while casting a sceptical eye on left-wing politics. Its rakish title character, Lord Glenarvon, is an unflattering depiction of her ex-lover, Lord Byron. In 1866, it was reprinted under the title, The Fatal Passion.

==Theme== Glenarvon corrupts the innocent young bride Calantha (Caroline herself), leading to their mutual ruin and death. The picture of her husband, William Lamb (the 2nd Viscount Melbourne from 1828), called Lord Avondale in the book, is more favourable, although he too is held to be partly responsible for Calantha's misfortunes: his biographer remarks that the book's message is that Caroline's troubles are everybody else's fault. The book is full of wildly improbable melodramatic scenes: Calantha's infant brother, the heir to a dukedom, is apparently murdered on the orders of their aunt Lady Margaret, to ensure that her son will inherit the estates; yet later we are told that the child is still alive.