Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: The Rape of the Lock After 300 Years (J. Paul Hunter)

1. Courtliness, Courtship, and Court Cards: Fractals as a Compositional Device in The Rape of the Lock (Pat Rogers)

2. Gallantry and The Rape of the Lock Reconsidered (Louise Curran)

3. Making the Perfect Woman: Female Automata from Pandora to Belinda (Glynis Ridley)

4. “Charms strike the Sight, but Merit wins the Soul”: Female Spirituality and The Rape of the Lock (Katherine M. Quinsey)

5. Catholic Society and Commercial Idolatry in The Rape of the Lock (Nicholas Hudson)

6. “Hairs less in sight”: Pope, Biology, and Culture (Raymond Stephanson)

7. Death and the Object: The Abuse of Things in The Rape of the Lock (Barbara M. Benedict)

8. It Narratives, Thing Theory, and “trivial Things”: Sophie Gee’s The Scandal of the Season and The Rape of the Lock (Kate Scarth)

9. Of Words and Things: Image, Page, Text, and The Rape of the Lock (Allison Muri)

10. From “Trivial Things” to “trivial things”: Pope, Lintot, and The Rape of the Lock (Donald W. Nichol)

Promotional Information

"Anniversary Essays on Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock is a worthy and timely tribute to a beloved and ever-intriguing poem. It really is a pleasure to read ten essays by ten interesting scholars on the same poem - every essay contributes something new and worthy to scholarship on The Rape of the Lock." -- Cynthia Wall, Department of English, University of Virginia

About the Author

Donald W. Nichol is a professor in the Department of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Reviews

‘Donald W. Nichol’s edition of collected essays on Alexander Pope’s brilliant satire, The Rape of the Lock, is a timely and intelligent celebration of a literary masterpiece…. This collection brings new and original interpretations to a classic work of eighteenth-century literature.’ - Ileana Baird (SHARP News August 21, 2016) ‘The editor’s preface provides a valuable account of the poem’s somewhat complicated publication history, which is also treated thoughtfully and with illuminating effect by contributors.’ - Jenny Davidson (Studies in English Literature vol 56:03:2016) ‘The essays collected here offer significant re-readings of Pope’s masterful Rape of the Lock and cumulatively these high quality pieces represent a fresh engagement with a poem that one might have thought sufficiently well studied.’ - Ashley Marshall (Modern Philology vol 115:02:2017)