Alexander Pope: A Life
by Maynard Mack
On This Page
Description
Winner of the Christian Gauss Award of Phi Beta Kappa and the Robert Kirsch Award of the Los Angeles Times.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
The Norton anthologiser Maynard Mack left every Pope fan in his debt with this marvellous biography.
I was just getting into Pope when I came across this book in a used bookstore. I bought it without expecting to enjoy it much; it's a great brick of a thing, and how interesting could his life have been? I stayed up most of the night to finish it, and have reread it several times with pleasure.
Mack gives wonderful context for those unfamiliar with 18th century England, and follows his subject's life with great sympathy and acuity. One comes away with a picture of a passionate, intelligent, and lonely man, who used his wit to woo friends and protect himself from the rest of the world. Pope overcame humble birth to become a respected and show more wealthy man, and somehow wrote a great volume of brilliant and humane poetry despite painful and debilitating health problems. This isn't hagiography, either; I get the feeling that Pope usually earned both his friends and enemies. show less
I was just getting into Pope when I came across this book in a used bookstore. I bought it without expecting to enjoy it much; it's a great brick of a thing, and how interesting could his life have been? I stayed up most of the night to finish it, and have reread it several times with pleasure.
Mack gives wonderful context for those unfamiliar with 18th century England, and follows his subject's life with great sympathy and acuity. One comes away with a picture of a passionate, intelligent, and lonely man, who used his wit to woo friends and protect himself from the rest of the world. Pope overcame humble birth to become a respected and show more wealthy man, and somehow wrote a great volume of brilliant and humane poetry despite painful and debilitating health problems. This isn't hagiography, either; I get the feeling that Pope usually earned both his friends and enemies. show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
44+ Works 3,304 Members
Maynard Mack was born in Hillsdale, Michigan on October 27, 1909. He received a bachelor's degree in 1932 and a doctorate in 1936 from Yale University. He taught at Yale University for 45 years before his retirement in 1978 and was a world-renowned expert on Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, and twentieth century literary criticism. He wrote numerous show more books including King Lear in Our Time, The Garden and the City, Collected in Himself, The Last and Greatest Art, Alexander Pope: A Life, Prose and Cons: Monologues on Several Occasions, and Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. He also served as an editor of The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope, which has become the standard edition of the poet's work, and he edited several collections of contemporary critical essays. He died on March 17, 2001 at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Alexander Pope
- Quotations
- To acknowledge the living whose acts of generosity have helped improve these pages is like numbering the
stars. ... Nevertheless, dear Daughters of Memory, Muse of History, Muse of Biography (if any), speak loud as many of... (show all) their names as you can. For reading the entire final text ... with patient resignation but scrupulously
helpful advice, sing rapturously these: [3 lines of names]. For experienced judgment on ... let these names too be gratefully recalled: [5 lines of
names]. And for those little unremembered acts of kindness and of love that make so large a portion of a good librarian's life, acclaim in golden tones the staff of [8 libraries].
Praise and thanks be also given to those who over the years have helped me with research. They are many: [2 lines of names]. But my debt is greatest to 3: ... And greatest of all to one: ... to her labours, and ... almost every page of this book is in debt.
Nor is it, Muses, ever just to forget the generosity of the Olympians: [institutions listed]. Singly and collectively they have bestowed on me the greatest of blessings: time. For their kindness to me and to countless others, I salute them.
Always, however, when the captains and the kings depart, and all other debts have been acknowledged, a creditor remains for whose bounty one can only thank God. To her this book is dedicated.
Classifications
- Genres
- Literature Studies and Criticism, Biography & Memoir, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 821.5 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures British Poetry 1702-1745 Queen Anne period, 18th. century
- LCC
- PR3633 .M27 — Language and Literature English English Literature 17th and 18th centuries (1640-1770)
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 102
- Popularity
- 316,741
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.45)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
