A pilgrimage of passion

by Elizabeth Harman Pakenham Countess of Longford

The long, naughty life of Wilfrid Blunt (1840-1922)--poet, explorer, political maverick, incorrigible philanderer--should make for a great romp through the unbuttoned Victorian sub-world; and drily witty Lady Longford (Victoria R.I.) would seem to be an ideal biographer. Odd, then, that this rich brew is only intermittently invigorating--perhaps because Longford isn't selective enough (for U.S. readers anyway), perhaps because of something un-simpatico in Blunt himself. He was a sickly, beautiful, well-born boy with a confused, fatherless, religious upbringing; he became a teenage diplomat in Europe and quickly began his career as an amorist--his second amour was famed, homey courtesan ""Skittles,"" who went on to royal beds but remained Wilfrid's chum. And once afire, Wilfrid's arranged marriage to Byron's rich granddaughter Anne did nothing to cramp his style; she stoically averted her eyes while W.S.B. capered through 40 years of overlapping liaisons, mostly with married women (e.g.