The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Alexander Pope (Author), Pat Rogers (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: March 15, 2009

Alexander Pope has often been termed the first true professional poet in English, whose dealings with the book trade helped to produce the literary marketplace of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this representative selection of Pope's most important work, the texts are presented in chronological sequence so that the Moral Essays and Imitations of Horace are restored to their original position in his career.
This edition represents the single most comprehensive anthology of Pope's works. The Duncaid, The Rape of the Lock, and Imitations of Horace are presented in full, together with a characteristic sample of Pope's prose, including satires, pamphlets, and periodical writing. This edition also includes a further reading list, an invaluable biographical index as well as indexes of titles, first lines, and correspondences.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Pat Rogers is the editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature and of Boswell's Life of Johnson in OWC. His most recent book is Pope and the Destiny of the Stuarts (OUP, 2005).

Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Reissue edition (March 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199537615
• ISBN-13: 978-0199537617
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The 18th Century's Greatest "Learned Wit", June 23, 2008

By 

Richard Ellman (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Dr. Pat Rogers, editor of this particular edition, often describes Alexander Pope as the first professional writer in the English language. Indeed, there is something highly polished in the prose and poetry of Pope, a self-awareness of the art unfolding before you. Those seeking a single "compact" edition of Pope's major works would do well to purchase this book. Dr. Rogers's careful editing, wonderful introduction, and in-depth scholarly notes are of sustained importance for the neophyte reader. He includes in this edition "The Rape of the Lock" (perhaps Pope's most anthologized and most read work), "The Dunciad" (a denser work usually the province of graduate students and scholars of the 18th century), as well as Pope's epistles, satires, works of literary criticism (students and scholars of Chaucer and Shakespeare will particularly enjoy Pope's assessment, while "An Essay on Criticism" is essential for all students of the history of literary criticism).

In contrast to the isolated genius of the 19th century, who sought to write poetry removed from the everyday concerns of society, Pope exemplifies the pinnacle of urban (and urbane) poetry which was, in its time, deeply implicated in the contemporary political, social, and religious controversies. Pope's satiric glance at a world in which he could never fully participate (ironically, he enjoyed the leisure time to write because of his condition as invalid) offers the reader a view of the 18th century at once in love with its intricate and luxurious detail while simultaneously baffled and angered by its ostentatious frivolity.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flimsy printing, January 8, 2011

By 

Jerry (Riverside, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

The editor did a great job with the selection of Pope's best works, and arranged in chronological order. But as long as this exists in paperback, long for another edition. I've had this copy for about a year and pages are falling out all over the place because the book is so thick and the spine so weak.

Another thing that I hate about this is he appended commentaries to the lines at the end of the book. The inconvenience is while I'm reading I have to turn all the way to the back to see what he wrote.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stuff!, January 22, 2007

By 

Geoff Puterbaugh (Chiang Mai, T. Suthep, A. Muang Thailand) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Opinions differ, with regard to Alexander Pope, but then again it's hard to find any subject at all where opinions do NOT differ!

I think that Pope was one of the most clever and skilled man who ever wrote verse in English, and that his verse rises pretty frequently to the level of poetry. His translation of "The Iliad" is probably immortal. I was surprised to learn that he farmed out the translation of "The Odyssey" to lesser lights: half of the books in the "Pope" translation of "The Odyssey" were, in fact, ghost-written!

If you have never read anything by Pope and want an introduction, then find yourself an easy chair, pour yourself something cordial to drink, and read the "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot." I never get tired of this minor masterpiece! ("Why break a butterfly upon the wheel?" is just one example. But I could cite the whole thing!)

Highest recommendation!