Customer Reviews

The Rape of the Lock and a Key to the Lock (Hesperus Classics)

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Alexander Pope's faux heroic poem in five cantos is truly a gem! Both hilarious in its elegant language juxtaposed with a "trivial cause," Pope's <i>Rape of the Lock</i> shall remain a beauty of English poetry.

Beyond the poem, this particular edition is, from my experience, one of the better editions on the market. The concise foreword by Peter Ackroyd is well-written and serves as an excellent historical and biographical introduction to the work. There are two other perks to this edition that I'd like to note: one is the inclusion of both the 1712 two canto version as well as the later more complete five canto version. The second is that this edition includes Pope's satirical response to critics' response to his poem; a prose piece entitled <i>A Key to the Lock</i> which is very much worth reading.

The only other edition that I would recommend is a more scholarly composite: the Bedford Cultural Edition (ISBN: 0-312-11569-5). This edition includes a complete cultural and historical background along with the complete text (including the original version). Beyond that, this edition includes many cultural contexts: "The Poetic World," "The Social World," and "The Political World." This is the complete scholar's edition.

If you are looking for the critical compendia, go for this, if you are looking simply for a concise background of the poem as well as the text with some notes, the go for the former edition.