Summary
Don Juan is Lord Byron’s bold and irreverent retelling of the legendary seducer—not as a charismatic womanizer, but as a naïve and handsome young man who is constantly seduced by women. The poem follows Don Juan’s misadventures across Europe and beyond—from scandal in Spain to shipwrecks, harems, and high society intrigue.
Byron uses the poem to satirize politics, war, aristocracy, gender roles, and the hypocrisies of 19th-century European society.
Full of wit, irony, and biting social commentary, the poem is both humorous and deeply critical of the world around him.
Despite being unfinished (Byron died while working on the 17th canto), Don Juan is one of his most influential works.