Lord Byron Returns to Chillon in 2016
At least until August 21 in
1816-1820 Byron is back ! Lord Byron’s Return
2016 is the 200th anniversary year of the romantic poets and Frankenstein inspiration in Switzerland. A number of events and exhibits are being offered to celebrate the “romantics summer” of 1816.
Lord George Gordon Byron visited the shores of Lake Geneva for five months in the summer of 1816, from May through October. It was a busy and auspicious time for English Literature. While staying at rented estate, the Villa Diodati in the Cologny suburb of Geneva, and joined by new friends Mary and Percy Shelley, came the now famous origin of the Frankenstein story by Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron produced his haunting Prisoner of Chillon, inspired by the beautiful castle which guards the eastern lake shore at Montreux, (called Clarens in the days of the romantics).
While the tale of the ghost story competition at the Villa Diodati which is the common telling of the origin for Frankenstein, of which one is reminded of the line “when the legend becomes the truth, print the legend” is being celebrated with its own 200th Anniversary at the Bodmer Foundation Library in Geneva, the trip of Byron and Percy Shelley around the lake is less familiar and the Chateau Chillon is presenting its own temporary exhibition to celebrate the 200 years since the visit of the poet to its dungeons which inspired him to write of the priest held captive as a political prisoner. The aim of the 2016 bicentennial summer exhibit is to offer an homage to the man who ignited the romantic travel desires of the reading public to follow in the footsteps of the literary pioneers who described beautiful far-away places with such emotion.
Read Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley for the real love story origin of Frankenstein
During the five months stay at Lake Geneva from May 20 until October, the Shelleys and Bryon who had not met previously, became good friends that summer. Mary dedicated the first edition of Frankenstein to the “mad, bad, dangerous to know” poet and Percy Shelley and Bryon rented a boat to explore around the lake. The stop at the Chateau Chillon was brief, like any tourist’s visit might be, but the stories he heard of Francois Bonivard and his treatment in the hands of the Savoys caused him to begin his Prisoner of Chillon verse tale while staying on the Ouchy Riviera of Lausanne.
The “Byron Experience” Exhibition
During the special exhibit a self-guided tour of Castle Chillon with present the experience of Byron through documents, rare publications and objects presented in context with a collection of evocative images to present visitors with the scope of work left to us by Byron, the rock star of his age. The exhibition has original and exceptional documents and objects on display lent by various prestigious institutions, including the Geneva State Archives, the National Library of Scotland and the University Library of Lausanne. Among the objects, is a manuscript of “The Prisoner of Chillon”, which was hand copied for Byron by Mary Shelley’s step-sister Claire Clairmont, who was pregnant with Byron’s daughter Allegra at the time. He didn’t get along with her, but she was dutiful to him. Also present is a first published edition, as well as numerous original editions written by Lord Byron.
For touring the sites visited by Bryon and Shelleys, and writing of in their journals, the exhibit offers an “Alpine Journal” guide, to retrace the footsteps of Lord Byron’s and explore the alpine landscapes of which inspired those first tourists so enchanted by Switzerland, that remains an inspirational today as it was 200 years ago. The exhibition is in French, English and German.
A combined ticket is available to see the Summer of 1816 exhibits around the lake, including 1816-1820 Byron is back ! Lord Byron’s Return at Chillon Castle and Frankenstein: Creation of Darkness at the Bodmer Foundation Library.
Other Events in Switzerland celebrating Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bryon
Several events are being held in 2016 and 2017 to celebrate Lord Byron and the friends coterie of the friends’ stay in Switzerland. The Musée du Léman holds an exhibition, Wanted! A la chasse sur le lac will be open until January 8, 2017. Byron himself appears in a large fresco by the artist Aloys. In Italian speaking Switzerland, just beyond the newly inaugurated Gotthard Base Tunnel, the Sasso Corbaro Castle of Bellinzona presents an exhibition about Mary Shelley & Frankenstein through the end of July.
For more about Chillon Castle and Bellinzona in Favorite Castles of Switzerland
From 26 August, a musical comedy version of “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” will be presented at the Grand-Champ theatre in Gland before moving to Geneva. While in Geneva, the Musée Rath has organized an exhibition called “Le retour des Ténèbres” (Return from the Darkness) around the myths of vampires and Dr. Frankenstein’s monster which will run later in the season from December 2, 2016 to 19 March 19, 2017, while the Brocher Foundation Research for the Future of Human Being and Society in Hermance, Switzerland also has an exhibition cycle called 1816-2016: the Frankenstein Bicentennial and symposium June 14-15 on Frankenstein’s Shadow: A Bicentennial Assessment of the Frankenstein Narrative’s Influence on biotechnology, medicine and policy
From June 29 until November 6, 2015, the Keats-Shelley House in Rome will be offering a special exhibition “Lord Byron in the Hand of Mary Shelley”. The exhibition presents a sequence of manuscripts on loan from the National Library of Scotland, alongside Byron treasures from the Keats-Shelley House’s own collection – which explores the fascinating relationship between these two important figures of Romantic Literature and the ways in which Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley edited Byron’s work in preparation for its publication.