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The scandal of the season

by Gee, Sophie, 1974-

Format: Print Book 2007
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy

Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
Bethel Park Public Library Fiction FIC GEE Sophie
Location  Bethel Park Public Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  FIC GEE Sophie
 
 

Summary
"London, 1711. As the rich, young offspring of the city's most fashionable families fill their days with masquerade balls and clandestine courtships, Arabella Fermor and Robert, Lord Petre, lead the pursuit of pleasure. Beautiful and vain, Arabella is a clever coquette with a large circle of beaus. Lord Petre, seventh Baron of Ingatestone, is a man-about-town with his choice of mistresses. Drawn together by an overpowering attraction, the two begin an illicit affair." "Alexander Pope, sickly and nearly penniless, is peripheral by birth, yet his uncommon wit and ambition gain him unlikely entrance into high society. Once there, privy to every nuance and drama, he is a ruthless observer. He longs for the success that will cement his place in society; all he needs is one poem grand enough to make his reputation." "As the forbidden passion between Arabella and Lord Petre deepens, an intrigue of a darker nature threatens to overtake them. Fortunes change and reputations - even lives - are imperiled. In the aftermath, Pope discovers the idea for a daring poem that will catapult him to fame and fortune."--BOOK JACKET.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "England in the beginning of the eighteenth century was a time known for the wit of its intellectuals as well as the crudeness of daily life. The great men of the era attended to business in coffeehouses nobles cheek by jowl with writers trading jests and jibes, making and destroying reputations with impunity. In the London season of 1711, a hopeful Alexander Pope visiting his painter friend Jervas finds himself in the perfect position to observe the scandal that his genius would turn into The Rape of the Lock.  The cast of characters glitters with members of the British nobility and of the English literati, with the seduction of the virginal beauty Arabella Fermor by Lord Petre at the heart of the story. A touch of suspense comes from a Jacobin plot that targets the aging Queen Anne for replacement by the Stuart king in exile. True to the mores of the era and to the historical record, this agreeable and gossipy read will appeal to those who like their history with a touch of spice.--Loughran, Ellen Copyright 2007 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Hunchbacked satirist poet Alexander Pope finds inspiration in the foibles of 18th-century London's young, rich and arrogant in Gee's shrewd debut, an erudite period piece filled with outrageous flirtation, social maneuvering and contests of wit. The low-born Pope is permitted entry to London's upper echelons after some of his poems gain a gilded readership, and his literary ambitions and adventures in the city with childhood friends Martha and Teresa Blount are offset by the passionate but clandestine romance between the beautiful Arabella Fermor (who happens to be related to the Blounts), and the haughty Lord Petre, whose involvement in a plot to assassinate the queen lands him in a tight spot. The stories intersect when Pope immortalizes the lovers' high-class intrigue in a scalding poem. The novel is sprinkled with literary cameos and jokes English lit majors will appreciate, while crackling verbal one-upmanship and crude double entendres should keep the hoi polloi turning pages. Gee's take on the Paris Hilton-like figures who pranced through London 300 years ago manages to be simultaneously tabloid bawdy and academy proper. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Pope, Alexander, -- 1688-1744 -- Fiction.
Fermor, Arabella, -- 1696-1737 -- Fiction.
Petre, Robert Petre, -- Baron, -- 1689-1713 -- Fiction.
Courtship -- Fiction.
Upper class families -- England -- London -- Fiction.
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century -- Fiction.
Biographical fiction.
Historical fiction.
Publisher New York :Scribner,2007
Language English
Description vii, 351 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN 9781416540564 (alk. paper)
1416540563 (alk. paper)
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