L.E.L.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the Celebrated "Female Byron"

A feminist historical biography, L.E.L.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the Celebrated “Female Byron” (2019) by Lucasta Miller explores the life of a forgotten 19th-century female poet who was best known for her dark portrayals of sexuality and her daring poetry. Nominated for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award, reviewers praise Miller for bringing Landon’s work back into the spotlight. A literary journalist and author, Miller has worked for leading papers including The Independent and The Guardian. She is best known for her book on the Brontë sisters, The Brontë Myth.

In L.E.L., Miller introduces readers to a once-notorious poet who later fell into obscurity. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, usually referred to by her initials, grew up in London in the early 19th century, known to her contemporaries as a gifted and passionate writer. She was so popular with her peers and contemporary readers that everyone called her “the female Byron.” She disappeared from the literary scene as quickly as she had arrived and only now are historians piecing together what happened.

Miller explores why Landon faded into obscurity, deciphering what this daring poet can teach us about the mid-19th-century literary landscape. What she uncovers is an enormously talented woman whom her contemporaries went to great lengths to erase.



For Miller, it is time to give Landon’s poetry the attention it deserves. Simply too good to ignore, Landon’s poetry offers incredible insight into the forgotten period sandwiched between two major literary movements—the Romantics and the Victorians. Miller argues that we cannot fully understand the period without acquainting ourselves with Landon’s poetry which perfectly embodies this post-Byronic era.

Miller begins with an overview of Landon’s death. Witnesses found the body of a 36-year-old woman on October 15, 1838, in Cape Coast Castle, West Africa. She died holding a bottle of Prussic acid, and witnesses identified her as Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Her death sparked widespread curiosity among the literary community as everyone wanted to know if her death was accidental or if someone had murdered her.

Not wanting to deal with the fallout surrounding her mysterious death and wanting to minimize the risk of scandalous stories emerging, the early Victorian publishing industry took steps to erase Landon from memory. Her contemporaries believed she had lived a morally questionable life, and her death was the opportunity to erase her from the literary scene. This is typical, according to Miller, with early Victorian attitudes towards women, sexuality, and morality.



Miller looks at what we know about Landon. When she died, she had only recently married British Governor, George Maclean. A local jury ruled her death as accidental, although George wasn’t entirely convinced. Back home in England, the newspapers circulated news of Mrs. Mclean’s death, but it wasn’t until she was formally identified as Letitia Elizabeth Landon that her story became headline news.

Landon wrote primarily during the 1820s and the 1830s. Female writers of the day, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning, idolized her poetic genius. The Brontë sisters were enthusiastic fans, and she influenced female writers across Germany and France. She began writing under the initials L.E.L., and for a few years, no one knew her real name.

Miller finds the link between Byron’s death and Landon’s rise to stardom interesting. She notes that Byron almost singlehandedly created celebrity culture around writers, and once he died, every contemporary writer wanted to carve out their own notoriety. Landon was no exception—after Byron’s death, she revealed her full name, making waves across the London social scene.



It's important to remember, Miller claims, that female poets, or “poetesses,” dominated the literary scene just as the Romantic movement gave way to the early Victorian era. These women staked their reputation on being more sensitive and intuitive than their male counterparts, which is why they produced such rich, emotionally charged poetry. In many ways, these women embraced gender stereotypes to control how men viewed them.

Landon was no exception. She carved out a unique niche, writing primarily about unrequited romantic love. Her writing was often sadomasochistic in nature and used harsh Gothic imagery. Contemporaries claimed that no one could capture the inner workings of the female heart quite like Landon, and she skyrocketed to fame.

Landon’s downfall was the very celebrity status she coveted. She partied every night and courted numerous men, and before long the public couldn’t separate fact from fiction. Miller claims that Landon spent most of her life living in a rented accommodation above a respectable girls’ school, her private life nowhere near as scandalous as rumors suggested.



Landon projected a glamorous celebrity image; it is impossible now to know how much of it was true. Her contemporaries seized the opportunity to erase a highly popular female poet because she didn’t fit the mold of the stereotypical, prim and proper early Victorian woman. For Miller, Landon perfectly embodies the changing social, moral, and gender values associated with the late Romantic movement and the early Victorian era. In many ways, she is the one poet who bridges the gap.