Byron Loves History

The Bride of Abydos is a very interesting read because I love the way in which Byron uses history to tell a tale. Abydos was an important ancient city in Egypt and is the setting of the poem sometime during the period of Turkish rule (7th century to the 19th century). Throughout the poem Byron uses many small jabs at Christians and Arabs to establish the relationships between the Turks and their contemporaries. I thought that the story was interesting and seemed similar to the fairy tales told in the West considering it involved a beautiful young women who is being forced to marry a stranger by her strict father. However, a young stranger who had been impersonating her brother makes a plan to save her. The ending was not what I was expecting since it ended on a rather depressing note with the death of Selim. I did enjoy the numerous footnotes because most of them gave some historical background on certain events and people that Byron interjected into the poem. Also, here is a picture of the location of Abydos.