Description
The subtitle of this book is “a one-volume edition of the Twickenham Text with selected annotations”, and it does ‘what it says on the tin’, offering a valuable resource for any student of Pope’s works. It presents the full corpus of his poetry apart from the 1722 version of ‘The Rape of the Lock’ and other early versions of phrases preserved in the critical apparatus of that edition. Edited by an eminent Professor from Edinburgh University, it can surely be relied on as a seminal text. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era, considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, he is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including “An Essay on Criticism” (1711), “The Rape of the Lock” (1712-1717), “The Dunciad” (1728-1743), and for his translations of Homer. Pope is often quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, some of his verses having entered common parlance (e.g. “damning with faint praise” or “to err is human; to forgive, divine”). John Everett Butt, FBA (1906-1965) was an English literary scholar, known for his work on Alexander Pope. He was Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh from 1959 to 1965. Our book is in very nice condition, and comes with the original dust jacket, also in good condition, but price-clipped. The book itself, bound in bright blue cloth with title etc in gilt on the spine, is in ‘as new’ condition externally, and the pink page tops are surprisingly clean & bright. Inside, the endpapers are lightly tanned, but the pages are all clean & bright, the binding firm, and there is no sign of foxing. One or two almost invisible pencil annotations seen. Green Foyles label pasted inside the front cover (see photo).