Today I'm excited to be hosting a stop on Jillian Stone's book tour of
The Seduction of Phaeton Black via
Bewitching Book Tours. If you're a lover of mystery and the paranormal, you definitely want to add this to your reading list! Ms. Stone is here to chat about her handsome and sometimes rakish hero Phaeton Black and the makings of a hero in literature...stick around and don't forget to enter the giveaway...now onto the good stuff...
The Seduction of Phaeton Black: Antihero or Byronic Hero?
By Jillian Stone
According to Wikipedia, an anti hero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is contrary to that of the archetypal hero, yet typically retains many heroic qualities. Recently, two editors at RT Book Reviews had quite a discussion about whether Phaeton Black is a hero or antihero.
I must admit the antihero idea does have appeal. I wrote Phaeton Black to be a bad boy––devil may care, with an equally devilish smile. But I think Phaeton is actually closer to what’s called a Byronic hero, which is a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Here’s the definition: A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.
Byron described Conrad, the pirate hero of his The Corsair as follows:
That man of loneliness and mystery,
Scarce seen to smile, and seldom heard to sigh.
