Pope, Print, and MeaningOxford University Press, 2001 - 257 pages Throughout his life, Pope was fascinated by print. He loved its elements: dropped heads, italics, small capitals; fine paper and good ink; headpieces, tailpieces, initials, and plates. And he loved playing games with publication: anonymity, pseudonymity, false imprints, fake title-pages, advertisements, special editions, and variant texts.This is the first study to take Pope's experiments in print as a guide to interpretation. Each chapter is devoted to a particular book or text and focuses on how Pope expresses meaning through print. The Rape of the Lock, Dunciad Variorum, Essay on Man, early imitations of Horace, and Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot are read through their illustrations, annotations, parallel texts, title-pages, and revisions. Independent chapters are devoted to Pope's Works of 1717 and 1735-6, discussing his self-presentation and his relation to his readers. He emerges from the study as a figure marginalized socially, politically, and sexually, an author who gambles with his private life in confronting his opponents. |
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advertisement Alexander Pope annotation Arbuthnot argument Atalantis attack authorship Bathurst Belinda Boileau Book Trade bookseller Bossu's Brossette Burlington Cambridge claim contents deism discussion Dryden Dunciad Variorum edition Eloisa to Abelard English epic Essay on Criticism Essay on Reason ethic epistles example Fame Fermor folio footnotes Foxon friends frontispiece Gilliver Hampton Court Harte Harte's headpiece heteroglossia highlighted Horace's Horatian human Iliad illustrations Imitator of Horace italic John Jonathan Richardson Lady Mary Latin letter lines Lintot literary Lock London Lord Fanny Lord Hervey Mack manuscript Miscellany moral nature notes octavo Oxford parallel texts passage Pastorals poem poem's poet poetry political Pope's poem portrait preface present printer published quarto quotation Rape reader reading reference relation response revision Satire satyr says Scriblerus Second Book sexual Sober Advice social Sporus suggests sylphs tion translation Twickenham University Press Verses Virgil volume Warburton Windsor-Forest writing