Alexander Pope

This volume presents a selection from Pope's celebrated translation of Homer's Iliad, edited and arranged so as to concentrate on the central core of the story and thus to be readable as a continuous narrative. Also included is a section of the best of Pope's notes to his own translation;these illuminate his principles as a translator and transmit his intelligent and penetrating assessments of the Iliad's poetic qualities. It will enable students of English literature to sample a neglected poem written by Pope at the height of his powers, once thought to contain some of his finest writing and deepest poetic thoughts about Man and Nature. Students of the Classics, on the other hand, will be able to study in detail the response of one of its most distinguished admirers to the greatest poem of ancient Greece. Felicity Rosslyn's introduction discusses the main themes of the poem and establishes Pope's unique qualifications as a translator of Homer.

Pope's letters are fascinating documents, apart from his importance as a poet. Highly revealing of his remarkable character–ambitious, dangerous, trimming, ridiculous, intelligent, generous yet antagonistic–they also comprise a body of writing of extraordinary interest for an understanding of his times: its personalities, its plots, its tragedies and exiles, its loves, its scandals, the movement of its religious, political, and philosophical ideas, its sense of poetry, and its notions of poetic craft and genre. Moreover, Pope published a collection of his own letters: a selective and highly edited collection, in which (having retrieved the originals from some recipients) he revised their texts and on occasion claimed they had been written to other people. This came to light with the nineteenth-century discovery of transcripts of the original letters, made for Pope's correspondent Lord Caryll. Other letters preserved in the British Library's Homer MS are clearly ones the poet would not have chosen to keep, since he used their backs for drafts of his Iliad translation. George Sherburn's scholarly five-volume Collected Correspondence (Oxford, 1956) is the necessary basis for any new edition. The collection presented here is in the first place a balanced and varied selection from Sherburn. Since 1956, however, many new letters have been discovered, and this volume includes most of them. Many are among Pope's best, though they have till now been scattered in learned journals. This selection supplies an introduction, a commentary on each letter identifying allusions and quotations (with translations where necessary), and thematic and biographical indexes.

Aside from the celebrated title poem — a survey of the nature of the universe and man's place in it — this collection features "The Rape of the Lock," "Ode on Solitude," "The Dying Christian to His Soul," "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady," "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" and more.

Alexander Pope's technical polish and intellectual poise appeal to the subtlest audience. This selection includes The Rape of the Lock, Eloisa to Abelard, and extracts from The Dunciad and the translation of Homer.

This seminal edition includes comprehensive annotation, the 1712 version of the poem as well as the 1714 version, and substantial critical material in appendices. No student of Pope can afford to be without this classic edition.

A scholarly edition of the correspondence of Alexander Pope. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of the correspondence of Alexander Pope. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of the correspondence of Alexander Pope. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of the correspondence of Alexander Pope. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.