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.

First published in 1971. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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.

The timeless themes of the Odyssey - survival, courage, loyalty and hospitality - have resonated with readers through the ages, making it the most enduring classic in western civilization.

A definitive new edition of one of the greatest philosophical poems in the English language Voltaire called it "the most sublime didactic poem ever written in any language." Rousseau rhapsodized about its intellectual consolations. Kant recited long passages of it from memory during his lectures. And Adam Smith and David Hume drew inspiration from it in their writings. This was Alexander Pope's Essay on Man (1733-34), a masterpiece of philosophical poetry, one of the most important and controversial works of the Enlightenment, and one of the most widely read, imitated, and discussed poems of eighteenth-century Europe and America. This volume, which presents the first major new edition of the poem in more than fifty years, introduces this essential work to a new generation of readers, recapturing the excitement and illuminating the debates it provoked from the moment of its publication. Echoing Milton's purpose in Paradise Lost, Pope says his aim in An Essay on Man is to "vindicate the ways of God to man"-to explain the existence of evil and explore man's place in the universe. In a comprehensive introduction, Tom Jones describes the poem as an investigation of the fundamental question of how people should behave in a world they experience as chaotic, but which they suspect to be orderly from some higher point of view. The introduction provides a thorough discussion of the poem's attitudes, themes, composition, context, and reception, and reassesses the work's place in history. Extensive annotations to the text explain references and allusions. The result is the most accessible, informative, and reader-friendly edition of the poem in decades and an invaluable book for students and scholars of eighteenth-century literature and thought.

This authoritative edition was first published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Pope's poetry and prose - the major poems in their entirety, together with translations, criticism, letters and other prose - to give the essence of his work and thinking. Pope has often been termed the first truly professional poet in English, whose dealings with the book trade helped to produce the literary market-place of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this representative selection of Pope's most important work, the texts are presented in chronological sequence so that the Moral Essays and Imitations of Horace are restored to their original position in his career. The Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock, and Peri Bathous are presented in full, together with a characteristic sample of Pope's prose, including satires, pamphlets, and periodical writing. The influential preface to his edition of Shakespeare is here, as well as passages from his conversations with Joseph Spence and examples of his wide-ranging correspondence. This fine edition features a comprehensive biographical index, as well as an introduction and invaluable notes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The Rape of the Lock (1906) is an epic poem by English literary icon Alexander Pope. Known for his caustic wit and satirical outlook as much as he was for his formal expertise, Pope is arguably the most important English poet of the eighteenth century. His work influenced such figures as William Wordsworth, Samuel Johnson, and Jonathan Swift. Drawing on his immense knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin literature, Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock is a mock epic which captures the essence of classical divinity and poetry while illuminating the absurdity and stupidity of English aristocratic life. The poem centers on a Baron's obsession with the hair of the beautiful socialite Belinda. Although her hair is protected by divine Sylphs, the Baron eventually succeeds, using a pair of scissors to snip off a lock of Belinda's hair. This throws the world of the poem into chaos-Belinda is outraged, and the divine creatures which move invisibly between worlds try their best to restore order to the universe. The poem culminates with a battle between Belinda and the Baron, mimicking the heroism and warfare of the best of Homer while casting a critical eye on the values of England's elite. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

THE English version of The Iliad is Alexander Pope's. As Dr. Johnson said of Pope's rendition of the Odessey, it is, certainly the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen. This is the great Iliad of Homer, as cast into Engish by Alexander Pope, one of the giants of English poetry.

Alexander Pope was, at one time, the world's most celebrated poet. His trenchant satirical works - in which the foibles of all the critics, hacks and bad poets of his day are exploded - and his masterful heroi-comic poem The Rape of the Lock continue to inspire generations of writers and readers to this day. Alongside his more prominent poetical production, Pope engaged with some of the sharpest wits of his era - including Jonathan Swift and John Gay, the author of The Beggar's Opera - in writing a number of satirical prose works, of which Scriblerus is perhaps the greatest achievement. As he prepares to become father for the first time, the scholar Cornelius is determined to settle on nothing less than a child of the 'learned sex' - a boy - and give him the most thorough education so that he can become the greatest critic who ever lived. An account of the birth, the infancy, the schooling, the diet-planning, the unconventional love affairs and the attainments of this child prodigy,The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus is surely the funniest imaginary biography ever written.