A satirical epic about Don Juan—the wonderful conclusion to Byron’s multifaceted and, in many ways, contradictory activity—is rightfully regarded as the poet’s most important work. In his enthusiastic praise, Goethe and Shelley, Pushkin and Walter Scott, Heine and Mickiewicz all converged. It is precisely in this poem, which covers the broadest variety of life phenomena, that Byron reveals to the reader his own inner world most fully. He expresses here his most heartfelt convictions and his views on the calling of the poet.