History Memes

Yeah he was possibly more famous as a slut, heartbreaker, and all around bisexual catastrophe. He was one of the most interesting and unfortunately destructive people that could enter your life. He likely was bipolar though you can't accurately diagnose the dead even when they're textbook. The literary trope of the byronic hero is named after him both because he wrote these characters and because he acted like one. He was also one of the inspirations of the modern vampire as a charming and seductive nobleman who will ruin you. Other notable things include being the only lord to defend the luddites in parliament (in one of the few times he bothered with it) and him fighting and dying for Greek independence.

Annabelle Byron (her whole name is long enough to make you oppose the concept of nobility), Ada's mother, clearly loved him but understood that he absolutely shouldn't be an influence on their daughter. She also had serious concerns regarding his mental health, which were absolutely warranted given the trail of social destruction he left. And it should be noted that she was a badass in her own right as a gifted woman who worked for abolition, prison reform, and educational reform in addition to the whole leaving the most interesting man of the early industrial period because of fears his mental health issues may harm their kid.

Ada was apparently scandalously relaxed with men and a notorious gambler. People focus on her computer stuff because it's the most important stuff she did (she died young and was far less scandalous than her dad), but I do think there's value in remembering that she was a poet who was suspected in her time of infidelity. There are some people who approach life with a single minded dedication to something or the other, and we tend to think of geniuses as such, but she wasn't one of those people. She was instead someone who followed whatever interesting thing struck her fancy, learning everything she wanted to, though falling often back into a zone of competency. She is in some ways reminiscent of her peer Anne Lister in that regard.

It makes sense Ada doesn't have nearly as many fangirls in the 21st century as her father. Byron was a man who lived and died as the very model of the Gothic literary movement that he was a founder of