1458 The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Final Years of Byron and Shelley, by A. B. C. Whipple (read 18 July 1977) This covers much the same ground as the previous work The Life of Byron, by Elizabeth Longford) except it quotes more poetry. It tells of Shelley and Byron in Italy, and is really quite well done. Its conclusion: "Yet if you go there when the summer visitors have departed, you can stand on the lonely beach, as I did, and look out across the sea, then back at the soaring Apennines, and imagine the flaring flames of the funeral pyre, with Byron limping away into the water and Trelawney reaching into the fire to pluck out the heart of Percy Shelley. And there, more than in this book or even the classic books on Byron and Shelley, you may for a moment sense the grandeur of that tragedy, and finally understand what--to Byron and Shelley--was indeed Italy's fatal gift of beauty." I would like to stand on the beach near Viceggio and feel the bizarre grandeur of contemplating Aug 16, 1822--when Shelley was cremated on the beach. A very enjoyable book ( )