My Newest Girly Crush

Finally got around to reading the original short version of Pope's Rape of the Lock via "The Scandal of the Season," a painstakingly, historically-accurate poègraphie (my made-up word for "biography of a poem") by a Princeton English prof, Sophie Gee. (The Australian native graduated, on full scholarship, with a PhD in English Lit from Harvard in 2002 at age 27, her thesis on "filth, residue and pollution in the 18th century and their importance for satirical and polemical writing. My argument was that writers are often most interested in the very things that their culture discards and despises.") Specializing in Restoration and eighteenth-century British literature from Milton to Jane Austen, her first book was fittingly entitled, "Making Waste: Leftovers and the Eighteenth-Century Imagination."




Diverse publishing aesthetics ~ designed to appeal to varying cultural demographics, even within the same country but for different markets (consumers who can afford to buy hardcover vs trade vs mass paperback) ~ never fail to fascinate me. It's intriguing what publishers predict each target audience might prefer.

The photo above depicts Random House Australia's cover. I'm curious if national pride in Gee's accomplishments allowed her to have any input in image choice, which I daresay is the most elegant and academically-inclined of the bunch.




The Romanian cover.




The large print UK hardback cover. (Perhaps quietly sedate and classy for the hard-of-seeing dames? As opposed to...)




The UK softcover. (For some racy post-work reading on the Tube.)




The American hardcover.




The American trade paperback.




To avoid making unnecessary assumptions about events and historical figures to compromise the validity of verified facts and relationships, Gee chose to remain admirably economical with how liberally she fleshed out Pope's world, leaving her protagonists ~ as some reviewers complained ~ slightly wooden and perhaps, at times, two-dimensional. However, the characters were not entirely unsympathetic, their strengths, foibles, and obedience to stratified social castes and constraints still fully believable and fascinating. And to be honest, I found myself researching further and digging deeper into the novel, which is always a healthy sign of engaging and worthwhile reading.

Gee's sharp and able insight into human nature breathes fresh life into the backstory of the poem and provides an ultra-tactile immersion and insight into the world of Jacobite England, and her first effervescent, enlightening stab at a witty academic-treatise-cum-sexy-and-fun-novel is to be wildly commended. Named one of the Best Books of 2007 by the Washington Post and the Economist, it's been published in 13 countries, and is a literary romance that ends not so romantically after all. Or, because of the lack of actual romance in the end, it can be viewed all the more heartbreakingly romantic in the eyes of the tragic muse.

Pope's original 1712 short version of The Rape is included at the end of the book, including mini biographies of each principal character and an informative in-depth interview with Gee. The full-length, extended version of the poem, published in 1714, is available here through the Gutenberg Project. What literally takes my breath away about this page is the inclusion of a copy of the letter written by Pope to Ms. Arabella Fermor, the subject of the poem, a basic "checking in" with her as to keeping her informed of his respect, esteem, and intent in writing and publishing the now infamous work. So, so amazing. I love it.

Just for fun, The New York Times asked Gee and her boyfriend, fellow author Lev Grossman ("The Magicians"), to compile a Valentine's Day playlist, which can be found right here ~ with some very amusing and insightful commentary. I love that Gee picked The Decemberists' We All Go Down Together, which is from one of the best albums ever.

Her most recent scholarly work includes The Longman Cultural Edition on the poetry of Swift and Pope, as well as editing and introducing the longer, Vintage Classics edition of "The Rape of the Lock."

*sigh* Oh, the envy.

But when to Mischief Mortals bend their Will,
How soon they find fit Instuments of Ill!
Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting Grace
A two-edg'd Weapon from her shining Case;
So Ladies in Romance assist their Knight,
Present the Spear, and arm him for the Fight.
He takes the Gift with rev'rence, and extends
The little Engine on his Fingers' Ends;
This just behind Belinda's Neck he spread
As o'er the fragrant Steams she bends her Head:
Swift to the Lock a thousand Sprights repair,
A thousand Wings, by turns, blow back the Hair;
And thrice they twitch'd the Diamond in her Ear,
Thrice she look'd back, and thrice the Foe drew near.
Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought
The close Recesses of the Virgin's thought;
As on the Nosegay in her Breast reclin'd,
He watch'd th' Ideas rising in her Mind,
Sudden he view'd, in spite of all her Art,
An Earthly Lover lurking at her Heart.
Amaz'd, confus'd, he found his Power expir'd,
Resign'd to Fate, and with a Sigh retir'd.

The Peer now spreads the glittering Forfex wide,
T' inclose the Lock; now joins it, to divide.
Ev'n then, before the fatal Engine clos'd,
A wretched Sylph too fondly interpos'd;
Fate urged the Sheers, and cut the Sylph in twain,
(But Airy Substance soon unites again)
The meeting Points the sacred Hair dissever
From the fair Head, for ever and for ever!



Canto III, The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

(photo credit: a smashing photo of Sophie Gee, from her Princeton faculty bio page)