Don+Juan

Don Juan
//Don Juan// is a legendary fictional character who's story has been told countless times by hundreds of different authors. While Don Juan was around in oral stories for generations, it is believed that the first written appearance of the character was in a 17th century play called //The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest.// Many other famous authors have written their depictions of the Spanish legend, including plays by French writer Moliere and Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw, an epic poem by Lord Byron, and the most influential version, an opera, called //Don Giovanni,// composed by Wolfgang Mozart.

Each of these authors has a different version of Don Juan, but most tell the story of a young man who falls in love with a married woman. To save his mother from the shame of his immoral decisions, Juan is sent away from Seville to travel the world. Each version has Juan encountering a series of troubles, but also a series of women. Most versions have Don Juan, who is sometimes known as the "Seducer of Seville," seducing woman after woman, but Lord Byron's famous poem turns the tables and has women seducing the irresistible young man, and Juan tragically falling in love time and time again. Lord Byron's version is one of the most famous Don Juan stories, and helped create a standard literary character known as the Byronic hero. Byron's version of Don Juan was, in many ways, similar to the lifestyle and beliefs of the English poet himself.

The term Don Juan, especially in Spanish slang, has come to mean a womanizer.