Cover Image

The scandal of the season

by Gee, Sophie, 1974-

Format: Book on CD 2007
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy

Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
Springdale Free Public Library Audio Visual CD GEE
Location  Springdale Free Public Library
 
Collection  Audio Visual
 
Call Number  CD GEE
 
 

Summary
Jane Austen meets Philip Roth in a sexy, sparkling debut novel reconstructing the real-life scandal that inspired Alexander Pope's famous poem "The Rape of the Lock." London, 1711. The rich young offspring of the city's fashionable families fill their days with masquerade balls, opera engagements, and clandestine courtships. Leading the pursuit of pleasure are the beautiful Arabella Fermor, with her circle of beaus, and Robert Petre, seventh Baron of Ingatestone, a man-about-town with his choice of mistresses. Small, sickly, and almost penniless, Alexander Pope is peripheral by birth, yet his dazzling wit and ambition gain him unlikely entrance into high society. Privy to every nuance and drama, he is a brilliant and ruthless observer. As the forbidden passion between Arabella and Lord Petre deepens, fortunes change and reputations-even lives-are imperiled. Pope transforms their affair and its demise into a risque poem, "The Rape of the Lock," that catapults him to fame and fortune. A witty, provocative tale of intrigue, seduction, and betrayal, The Scandal of the Season captures a time when marriage was a market, sex was a temptation fraught with danger, and a costume could conceal a dandy or a murderer.
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.
Audiobooks.
Publisher [Minneapolis, MN] :Highbridge Co,2007
Edition Unabridged.
Contributors Stewart, Cameron.
HighBridge Audio (Firm)
Participants/Performers Read by Cameron Stewart.
Language English
Notes Unabridged.
Compact disc.
Description 8 audio discs (approximately 10 hr.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.
ISBN 9781598875294
1598875299
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