Helpful Score: 5
I took a class in grad school on the Age of Satire, but didn't learn that much about Alexander Pope, aside from reading "The Rape of the Lock", one of the greatest poems ever. This book was rife with information about the time and the scandal. It was a slow start but became gripping.
I found it unbearably dull, particularly when the author has a character speak some lines of uninteresting chitchat, and then the listener is described as being excited to be in the midst of such witty discourse. I gave up about page 60.
It is worth the time. Intriguing and clever. Finding out that most of the characters were based on real people made it even more interesting.
Such an interesting book. I remember reading The Rape of Lock in high school and was totally uninterested in it. After reading it, I wanted to pull out my old English book and do it all over! Gee does a great job of integrating fiction and history. If you like literature, and historical fiction, I would definitely recommend this book.
