The Scandal of the Season: A Novel (edition 2008)

I can't get into this. The writing is not great, and the POV jumps around too much.

I had somehow missed being taught "the Rape of the lock" in my English classes over the years. This novel was essentially a light, though well-written period romance - that just happened to be based on the poem. The result is that I read the 1712 edition of the poem - conveniently reprinted at the end of the novel - to myself aloud. And really enjoyed it. ( )

Lately, quite a few fluffy pieces of historical drivel have been making their way onto my reading lists. It is all due to my well meaning decision to stop judging books by their covers so strictly. This one is unfortunately the latest addition to my accidental and lamentable trend.

It is a "story behind the story" type of book, based on events that supposedly inspire the poet Alexander Pope to write "The Rape of the Lock." Here, Alexander is still a struggling writer searching for literary recognition in 1700's London, and longing after the love of his childhood friend Teresa. The future subject of his famous poem is to be Arabella Fermor, a young and stunningly gorgeous debutante. Arabella finds herself drawn to Robert, a rakish man who she knows she would do well to avoid. The two begin a scandalous affair.

What a mess this book was, from start to finish. It was exasperating and annoying. The moment I finished it, I slammed it down onto my 'discard' pile with a smack.

There was not a single character that I ever even mildly liked or wanted to hear more about. Alexander was insufferable, and whenever I glimpsed his name appearing frequently on the pages ahead, I groaned and thought to myself 'please no, please no...' He was a show off and a know it all, very sure of himself in a grating sort of way. Every character in this book seemed to always be trying so desperately to be sharp and witty, Alexander most of all. Rather than dazzle me with his wit, Alexander only inspired utter contempt from me. I hope that this doesn't cloud my opinions when I read some of the real Pope's work one day.

The real main character, Arabella, seemed intriguing at first, when she was still off scene somewhere, but once we get to her part of the story, she quickly loses all this. She is described as "the beauty of her age," and everyone seems captivated by her looks. Few paragraphs were allowed to pass by without the reader being reminded of how gorgeous Arabella is. This pretty much always annoys me, but of course it is possible for a girl to be stunningly beautiful. However, it was also convenient to the plot for her to be viewed as undesirable for not having a huge fortune. There is also a big to-do over her love interest, Robert, probably not being interested. Of course he won't be, he would never be interested in her, the most beautiful girl in London. I mean, who would be? And the author is always woefully pointing out to us that no one really wants Arabella. Why? She's so beautiful it's intimidating. Oh, I see, what a common problem... It seemed like the author wanted both - the ultimate desirable goddess, and the poor reject - in one character. It seemed conflicting to me and didn't work one bit.

The romance story here fell flat. This is probably because it wasn't really a romance plot at all, just sex. I found it annoying that Robert is portrayed as such a gentlemanly hero, when really he is just getting free sex from (in case you forgot) "the most beautiful girl in London."
I also found in annoying and unlikely that Arabella would so willingly and lightly give up her virginity, and thus her entire reputation, on this fling. Even if she had been so carried away by her passions, surely it would have been a bit more difficult for her to sneak out and meet Robert. But she never appears to come across any problems there. At one point she even just shows up randomly at his house in the middle of the night.

All of the parties that took up so much of the book were dull. It was all just a lot of "and she wore this, and he danced with this girl, and that girl said this, and guess which famous author was there...?!" It sounded like a gossip column at times, except about boring people I didn't care about.

The author often switches from character to character, taking us into Alexander's perspective and then to Robert's, who leads us to Arabella's words, and other such arrangements. It would be convenient, except that she was incapable of pulling it off.

Something that especially annoyed me was how Gee made all of her characters try so hard to be sharp and witty. Subtlety is the key to a good, hilarious satire - but Gee instead feels the need to throw satire at us for pages and pages. I just wanted to snap the book shut and read a REAL satire before my mind was contaminated by pretend-satire overload. The characters are always referencing how witty they all are, and Gee is constantly describing her character's personalities or conversations with that very same (overused) word, but I never see any evidence of this. All I saw were stupid people who talk in the most forced, stilted conversation I have ever heard of, and then try to pass it all off as brilliance just by calling it so.

Well, I suppose that by the time anyone has finished reading this they will have assumed that I didn't like it one bit. Normally I try to find at least something I like about a book, but I honestly couldn't come up with anything here.
To be discarded, and good riddance. ( )

This is a fictionalised account of the events which led up to Alexander Pope's composition of The Rape Of The Lock – Pope's arrival in London and introduction to the literary scene, his decision to abandon the epic style and start writing satire, and the scandalous liaison which led to the incident described in the poem. It was interesting reading this in follow-up to Wolf Hall, as there was a sub-plot about the discrimination that Catholics were still suffering in the early eighteenth century – not permitted to live within ten miles of London and unable to inherit. The story could also have been an interesting one, and the book was certainly trying to be a bit of a romp. But unfortunately I found the writing a bit ponderous – unsuccessfully mimicking the esprit and gallantry of contemporary satire, and telling rather more than showing. ( )

They say one should never judge a book by its cover, but the cover art on the latest paperback release of this book just screams “bodice ripper,” and I couldn’t help but assume that its content would likely follow suit. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that not only did this book cover a wide range of historical figures, but also, it was very well written! Gee really captured the essence of 18th Century England: full of religious strife, class struggles, society parties, Jacobite plots, and of course, romantic intrigue.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, its title derived from a line in Alexander Pope’s poem “Eloisa to Abelard,” which also comes up in the movie. When I first saw this film, I ran to Borders to pick up a copy of Pope’s poems, which I had studied in school briefly but not really paid much attention to. I became interested in Pope as a person and have always wanted to know what drove him to finally write satirically, as his earlier works are much more serious in tone than his later.

The Scandal of the Season answered my question ten-fold. Gee was able to intertwine Alexander Pope’s story seamlessly with the rest of the novel: Pope is a talented poet but an outsider to London society, who manages to work his way “in” as he observes these peculiar subjects and their frivolous ways, ultimately satirizing the ridiculousness of this “fashionable set” in what would become his most famous poem yet, “The Rape of the Lock”. Throughout his stay in London, Pope meets such literary greats as Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, and John Gay. I truly felt after reading this book that I had gained some insight into the lives of some of history’s most well respected writers, and the times that shaped their writings.

The back-story of this book is the love affair between Lord Petre, Baron of Ingatestone, and Arabella Fermor, the most beautiful girl in London. When Lord Petre’s well-to-do family learns of the affair, they chastise him for falling for Arabella, whom they deem an ill-suited match for the Baron. They manipulate him into forsaking his beloved, forcing him to embarrass her publicly in order to ensure that the connection between the two of them be forever severed. My complaint about this novel, and the reason why I’m giving it a rating of 3.5/5 Wives of Henry VIII, is that something about the relationship between Arabella and Lord Petre just seemed a bit off to me. It was all about “the chase” in the beginning, but then once they were actually together, their chemistry seemed to fizzle. Arabella and Lord Petre as characters fell a bit flat. Their love saga just seemed to lag and drag on a bit, without really growing as a relationship at all. I found the characters on Pope’s end of the story had much more depth, while the others were not nearly as well developed.

Aside from the lackluster couple, I really did enjoy the way this book was written and Alexander Pope’s part in the tale. Gee’s tongue-in-cheek writing style echoed Pope’s sardonic sentiment the whole way through, giving a real sense of how ordinary folk must have felt back in those days, watching as women fretted hysterically over which pair of gloves would be better suited to the day’s outfit, as if the wrong choice in stylish accoutrements could ruin one’s life entirely. I hope Sophie Gee will write another novel, she has a lot of talent as a writer and her knowledge of 18th century history really impressed me. With some fine-tuning, she could easily become a fantastic novelist.

http://histficchick.blogspot.com/ ( )