ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author argues that many of the rhetorical strategies Benita Eisler employs form part of a sustained effort to hold on to the 'fact' of incest in the face of quite reasonable doubts about her evidence. He offers some suggestions as to why she would go to such lengths to shut out what appear to be her own doubts about the case she is making. The author suggests that the efforts instance the powerful influence on recent biographical writing of contemporary attitudes towards sexuality, the continuing influence on biographies of Romantic-period writers of Romantic ideas about poetry, poets and the relations between these, and the ongoing influence on biographies of Lord Byron of the poet's own self-mythologizing. Everyone, it seems, knows that Byron had an affair with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. Byron's incestuous relationship with his half-sister is clearly considered one of his biggest selling points to a popular modem audience.
