SOURCE: “The Storyteller Part 2,” Trelawny: The Incurable Romancer, John Murray, 1977, pp. 182-90.

In the essay that follows, St. Clair discusses Trelawny's fantastical distortion of historical truth in his accounts of his travels and his encounters with Shelley and Byron.

It is a matter beyond dispute that Trelawny was one whose constitutional fearlessness and unimpeachable honour, in every circumstance of a stirring life, raised him on a pinnacle beyond the reach of detraction. His masterful bearing and unflinching honesty compelled respect wherever he went.

Richard Edgcumbe, who knew Trelawny in old age.

During his earlier years Trelawny knew he was being untruthful and he lived in fear of being found out, but for his later years it is harder to be sure. Even when he talked about his Arab bride Zela and his adventures with de Ruyter, it is doubtful whether he was still conscious that the events he...