An essay on man
by Alexander Pope
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Description
Voltaire called it "the most sublime didactic poem ever written in any language." Rousseau rhapsodized about its intellectual consolations. Kant recited long passages of it from memory during his lectures. And Adam Smith and David Hume drew inspiration from it in their writings. This was Alexander Pope's Essay on Man (1733-34), a masterpiece of philosophical poetry, one of the most important and controversial works of the Enlightenment, and one of the most widely read, imitated, and show more discussed poems of eighteenth-century Europe and America. This volume, which presents the first major new edition of the poem in more than fifty years, introduces this essential work to a new generation of readers, recapturing the excitement and illuminating the debates it provoked from the moment of its publication. Echoing Milton's purpose in Paradise Lost, Pope says his aim in An Essay on Man is to "vindicate the ways of God to man"--To explain the existence of evil and explore man's place in the universe. In a comprehensive introduction, Tom Jones describes the poem as an investigation of the fundamental question of how people should behave in a world they experience as chaotic, but which they suspect to be orderly from some higher point of view. The introduction provides a thorough discussion of the poem's attitudes, themes, composition, context, and reception, and reassesses the work's place in history. Extensive annotations to the text explain references and allusions. The result is the most accessible, informative, and reader-friendly edition of the poem in decades and an invaluable book for students and scholars of eighteenth-century literature and thought. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
This is an essay on history and man in verse. Lively and brief.
Due to the language, I already feel I need to reread this to better appreciate.
Due to the language, I already feel I need to reread this to better appreciate.
Original cost, 10 cents. One of 10 volumes published to that date, others to follow.
Fair,
?? "B Gradley's Book"? Hard to read
?? "B Gradley's Book"? Hard to read
review by George Sutherland Fraser. Please scroll down two paragraphs.
My 1995 review: "I found the heroic couplets to be extremely monotonous."
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Author Information
340+ Works 6,146 Members
Satirical poet Alexander Pope was born in London on May 21, 1688. He was educated by private tutors. Many consider Pope to be the greatest poet of his time, and he also wrote commentaries and translations, he is best known for such poems as The Rape of the Lock and The Duncaid. Pope was the first English poet to make a substantial amount of money show more from his writing. Pope died on May 30, 1744. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- An essay on man
- Original publication date
- 1734
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 189
- Popularity
- 167,939
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.03)
- Languages
- English, German, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 36
- ASINs
- 9
