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The Scandal of the Season
A tale based on the early eighteenth-century scandal that inspired Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" finds a sickly and impoverished Alexander Pope gaining entry into high society and closely following a forbidden affair between the rakish Lord Petre and the coquettish Arabella. A first novel. 100,000 first printing.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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1112 people want to read
About the author
Sophie Gee
11 books16 followersSophie Gee was born in Sydney in 1974 and grew up in Paddington. She attended the University of Sydney, where she graduated in 1995 with a first-class honors degree in English. She wrote her undergraduate thesis on Evelyn Waugh, still one of her favorite writers.
After university, Sophie won a scholarship to Harvard, where she did a Ph.D. in English literature. She wrote her doctoral thesis about filth, pollution and satire in the eighteenth century. She graduated from Harvard in 2002 and in fall of that year she was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of English at Princeton. She teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on eighteenth-century literature from Milton to Jane Austen, as well as on the history of satire. She lectures on subjects ranging from The Canterbury Tales to South Park and Catch-22. In 2006 she was named the John E. Annan Bicentennial Preceptor, in recognition of outstanding research and teaching as a member of Princeton's junior faculty, and her first scholarly book is forthcoming from Princeton University Press.
Before writing The Scandal of the Season Sophie published academic essays on Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and others, as well as articles and book reviews of general interest both in Australia and America. Sophie has been awarded academic fellowships at UCLA, Yale and the Huntington Library and she has been a visiting teacher at University College London.
Sophie lives in Brooklyn and she returns regularly to Australia to spend time with her family.
After university, Sophie won a scholarship to Harvard, where she did a Ph.D. in English literature. She wrote her doctoral thesis about filth, pollution and satire in the eighteenth century. She graduated from Harvard in 2002 and in fall of that year she was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of English at Princeton. She teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on eighteenth-century literature from Milton to Jane Austen, as well as on the history of satire. She lectures on subjects ranging from The Canterbury Tales to South Park and Catch-22. In 2006 she was named the John E. Annan Bicentennial Preceptor, in recognition of outstanding research and teaching as a member of Princeton's junior faculty, and her first scholarly book is forthcoming from Princeton University Press.
Before writing The Scandal of the Season Sophie published academic essays on Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and others, as well as articles and book reviews of general interest both in Australia and America. Sophie has been awarded academic fellowships at UCLA, Yale and the Huntington Library and she has been a visiting teacher at University College London.
Sophie lives in Brooklyn and she returns regularly to Australia to spend time with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 269 reviews
August 6, 2014
I bought this book on the strength of good reviews in the press, and was left disappointed. I too nearly put it down unfinished, which I have only very rarely done. A reviewer on Amazon asked why the book doesn't work, when Sophie Gee has a PhD in 18C literature and a clear passion for her subject - I think that's why. To me this book is an example of how not to turn an academic thesis and course of lectures into a novel.
Unfortunately, Ms Gee is intent on proving that this 'is not Austen' and to that end inserts vignettes of 18C life from her thesis or her wider reading that add nothing to character or plot development ie the hogman driving his herd of pigs through the theatre going crowd, the overheard snatches of servants' conversation. They jar and jolt the reader away from the story - perhaps this was her intent? The 18C is contemporary yet not?
I was convinced neither by the love story nor the Jacobite plotting - there was no sense of frisson in the former nor real threat in the latter - only four years after the novel is set the Old Pretender did mount an invasion. I feel this is because the author was aware that she was dealing with historical personalities and felt unable to write speech and behaviours for them which the trained historian in her could not justify through surviving texts. The plot only really got going in the last 50 or so pages, out of a 300 page novel - the pacing could have been better, and in the hands of a more experienced author it could have merited a longer treatment.
Sadly, the author could not resist the temptation to sprinkle the text with 'in jokes' about the personalities and literature of the time: Pope's meeting with Mary Wortley Montague [Pierrepont in the novel] is one of many. I have a little knowledge of the times and found this tedious.
I see that Sophie Gee has now published her thesis - I think it would be the better, more entertaining book, but I do hope she develops as a novelist and has the courage to cast aside her historical training and find her own voice, sadly lacking in this book.
Unfortunately, Ms Gee is intent on proving that this 'is not Austen' and to that end inserts vignettes of 18C life from her thesis or her wider reading that add nothing to character or plot development ie the hogman driving his herd of pigs through the theatre going crowd, the overheard snatches of servants' conversation. They jar and jolt the reader away from the story - perhaps this was her intent? The 18C is contemporary yet not?
I was convinced neither by the love story nor the Jacobite plotting - there was no sense of frisson in the former nor real threat in the latter - only four years after the novel is set the Old Pretender did mount an invasion. I feel this is because the author was aware that she was dealing with historical personalities and felt unable to write speech and behaviours for them which the trained historian in her could not justify through surviving texts. The plot only really got going in the last 50 or so pages, out of a 300 page novel - the pacing could have been better, and in the hands of a more experienced author it could have merited a longer treatment.
Sadly, the author could not resist the temptation to sprinkle the text with 'in jokes' about the personalities and literature of the time: Pope's meeting with Mary Wortley Montague [Pierrepont in the novel] is one of many. I have a little knowledge of the times and found this tedious.
I see that Sophie Gee has now published her thesis - I think it would be the better, more entertaining book, but I do hope she develops as a novelist and has the courage to cast aside her historical training and find her own voice, sadly lacking in this book.
February 7, 2017
Nope. I yield.
I've had this book for too long. It was a bargain-bin type thing I picked up 8+ years ago, & I should've attempted it back when it was new & shiny on my shelf -- because then I might actually have cared. Nowadays, I can safely attest to ZERO interest in Alexander Pope wandering around London to have conversations with various historical and/or fictional personages involved in the possible Catholic overthrow of the monarchy -- not to mention a thinly veiled novelization of the author's thesis on (or, at the very least, lifelong leisure study of) the genesis of The Rape of the Lock.
The prose itself isn't bad, weirdly enough, but there's just NOTHING HAPPENING. Bye-bye.
Standard 2-star DNF.
I've had this book for too long. It was a bargain-bin type thing I picked up 8+ years ago, & I should've attempted it back when it was new & shiny on my shelf -- because then I might actually have cared. Nowadays, I can safely attest to ZERO interest in Alexander Pope wandering around London to have conversations with various historical and/or fictional personages involved in the possible Catholic overthrow of the monarchy -- not to mention a thinly veiled novelization of the author's thesis on (or, at the very least, lifelong leisure study of) the genesis of The Rape of the Lock.
The prose itself isn't bad, weirdly enough, but there's just NOTHING HAPPENING. Bye-bye.
Standard 2-star DNF.
August 15, 2009
You can read this review on my blog, here.
The Scandal of the Season
by Sophie Gee
They say one should never judge a book by its cover, but the cover art on the latest paperback release of this book just screams “bodice ripper,” and I couldn’t help but assume that its content would likely follow suit. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that not only did this book cover a wide range of historical figures, but also, it was very well written! Gee really captured the essence of 18th Century England: full of religious strife, class struggles, society parties, Jacobite plots, and of course, romantic intrigue.
One of my favorite movies of all time is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, its title derived from a line in Alexander Pope’s poem “Eloisa to Abelard,” which also comes up in the movie. When I first saw this film, I ran to Borders to pick up a copy of Pope’s poems, which I had studied in school briefly but not really paid much attention to. I became interested in Pope as a person and have always wanted to know what drove him to finally write satirically, as his earlier works are much more serious in tone than his later.
The Scandal of the Season answered my question ten-fold. Gee was able to intertwine Alexander Pope’s story seamlessly with the rest of the novel: Pope is a talented poet but an outsider to London society, who manages to work his way “in” as he observes these peculiar subjects and their frivolous ways, ultimately satirizing the ridiculousness of this “fashionable set” in what would become his most famous poem yet, “The Rape of the Lock”. Throughout his stay in London, Pope meets such literary greats as Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, and John Gay. I truly felt after reading this book that I had gained some insight into the lives of some of history’s most well respected writers, and the times that shaped their writings.
The back-story of this book is the love affair between Lord Petre, Baron of Ingatestone, and Arabella Fermor, the most beautiful girl in London. When Lord Petre’s well-to-do family learns of the affair, they chastise him for falling for Arabella, whom they deem an ill-suited match for the Baron. They manipulate him into forsaking his beloved, forcing him to embarrass her publicly in order to ensure that the connection between the two of them be forever severed. My complaint about this novel, and the reason why I’m giving it a rating of 4/6 Wives of Henry VIII, is that something about the relationship between Arabella and Lord Petre just seemed a bit off to me. It was all about “the chase” in the beginning, but then once they were actually together, their chemistry seemed to fizzle. Arabella and Lord Petre as characters fell a bit flat. Their love saga just seemed to lag and drag on a bit, without really growing as a relationship at all. I found the characters on Pope’s end of the story had much more depth, while the others were not nearly as well developed.
Aside from the lackluster couple, I really did enjoy the way this book was written and Alexander Pope’s part in the tale. Gee’s tongue-in-cheek writing style echoed Pope’s sardonic sentiment the whole way through, giving a real sense of how ordinary folk must have felt back in those days, watching as women fretted hysterically over which pair of gloves would be better suited to the day’s outfit, as if the wrong choice in stylish accoutrements could ruin one’s life entirely. I hope Sophie Gee will write another novel, she has a lot of talent as a writer and her knowledge of 18th century history really impressed me. With some fine-tuning, she could easily become a fantastic novelist.
December 12, 2009
The saving grace of this book was that it included the text of "The Rape of the Lock" in the back, meaning I got to read it again, which was great, because it is awesome and hilarious. And it was fun learning a bit about the backstory.
Beyond that, though, that I found this novel's pacing and dialogue and, well, prose in general consistently awkward and affected. Way too much telling, not enough showing. I know that writing historical fiction entirely through the eyes of actual figures can't be a walk in the park, but still. The characterizations lack depth and humanity. As a reader I felt not at all invested in the signature love story, the Catholic takeover plot always seemed too farcical to have any suspense, and even the climatic hair-cutting scene lacked, well, much of a climax.
Of course, there is the possibility that I am misjudging this work entirely. Given its setting in the age of the artificial, could this novel's overwhelming affectedness and self-consciousness not be some sort of elaborate conceit, a sort of meta-commentary on post-Restoration literature and culture? Ha.
Beyond that, though, that I found this novel's pacing and dialogue and, well, prose in general consistently awkward and affected. Way too much telling, not enough showing. I know that writing historical fiction entirely through the eyes of actual figures can't be a walk in the park, but still. The characterizations lack depth and humanity. As a reader I felt not at all invested in the signature love story, the Catholic takeover plot always seemed too farcical to have any suspense, and even the climatic hair-cutting scene lacked, well, much of a climax.
Of course, there is the possibility that I am misjudging this work entirely. Given its setting in the age of the artificial, could this novel's overwhelming affectedness and self-consciousness not be some sort of elaborate conceit, a sort of meta-commentary on post-Restoration literature and culture? Ha.
July 4, 2024
EDIT: sono arrivata alla fine, saltellando tra le pagine, e confermo la mia opinione scritta sotto.
In realtà abbandonato a pagina 201 perché la pazienza è poca e la trama è noiosa. Anzi, direi inesistente. È tutta una sequenza di scene che si ripetono fino alla nausea, con Cosetta che va in un posto, si incontra con Cosetto, seguono dialoghi sugli argomenti più disparati e via discorrendo. Per il resto non accade nulla. Anche il supposto intrigo, che viene proposto all'inizio, dopo 200 pagine ancora non ingrana.
Alexander Pope dovrebbe essere uno dei protagonisti ma appare e scompare. Il restante carnet dei personaggi ha lo spessore di sagome di cartone.
Viene menzionate anche lady Mary Wortley Montagu, mia beniamina, ma neppure la possibilità che possa ricoprire un qualche ruolo che non sia marginale riesce a convincermi a proseguire.
Da quel che ho letto mi pare che l'autrice non avesse lei stessa idea di dove andare a parere e cercasse solo una scusa per mostrare le sue conoscenze sul periodo. Peccato che come base per un romanzo sia assai traballante.
Insomma, come wi fa a rendere un secolo come il Settecento maledettamente noioso? A quanto pare si può, sigh.
Certe situazioni, poi, poco credibili, come una fanciulla non sposata che torna in carrozza con un uomo e nessuno batte ciglio. Mi pare improbabile. Ho riscontrato anche alcune imprecisioni, come l'uso del termine corsetto al posto del più corretto corpetto (forse colpa della traduzione?). E a proposito di traduzione, ho trovato la resa di certi tentativi di "dirty talking" settecenteschi alquanto imbarazzanti.
Magari un giorno mi verrà voglia di riprenderlo e sapere come finisce, ma per ora preferisco non forzarmi e dedicarmi ad altri libri più meritevoli.
Almeno sono contenta di non averlo pagato a prezzo pieno, avendolo trovato nella sezione libri usati (e ora capisco anche perché si trovasse lì).
In realtà abbandonato a pagina 201 perché la pazienza è poca e la trama è noiosa. Anzi, direi inesistente. È tutta una sequenza di scene che si ripetono fino alla nausea, con Cosetta che va in un posto, si incontra con Cosetto, seguono dialoghi sugli argomenti più disparati e via discorrendo. Per il resto non accade nulla. Anche il supposto intrigo, che viene proposto all'inizio, dopo 200 pagine ancora non ingrana.
Alexander Pope dovrebbe essere uno dei protagonisti ma appare e scompare. Il restante carnet dei personaggi ha lo spessore di sagome di cartone.
Viene menzionate anche lady Mary Wortley Montagu, mia beniamina, ma neppure la possibilità che possa ricoprire un qualche ruolo che non sia marginale riesce a convincermi a proseguire.
Da quel che ho letto mi pare che l'autrice non avesse lei stessa idea di dove andare a parere e cercasse solo una scusa per mostrare le sue conoscenze sul periodo. Peccato che come base per un romanzo sia assai traballante.
Insomma, come wi fa a rendere un secolo come il Settecento maledettamente noioso? A quanto pare si può, sigh.
Certe situazioni, poi, poco credibili, come una fanciulla non sposata che torna in carrozza con un uomo e nessuno batte ciglio. Mi pare improbabile. Ho riscontrato anche alcune imprecisioni, come l'uso del termine corsetto al posto del più corretto corpetto (forse colpa della traduzione?). E a proposito di traduzione, ho trovato la resa di certi tentativi di "dirty talking" settecenteschi alquanto imbarazzanti.
Magari un giorno mi verrà voglia di riprenderlo e sapere come finisce, ma per ora preferisco non forzarmi e dedicarmi ad altri libri più meritevoli.
Almeno sono contenta di non averlo pagato a prezzo pieno, avendolo trovato nella sezione libri usati (e ora capisco anche perché si trovasse lì).
November 28, 2018
The Scandal of the season was an experiment, I had never read a book with this kind of plot, characters and their social setting as this. For the most part the book was a bit of a chore, not due to the style of writing (which was very good) but mostly because I could not stand most of the ensemble.
Most characters are superficial vain egotrippers obsesses with their looks, making token appearances and clothing. But this is appropriate for the book is meant to be the making of story of British Poet Alexander pope's story; the rape of the lock. A satire meant to make fun of the vainglorious and idleness of the upper classes in early 18the century London. As a period piece the story works, I have a feeling Sophie Gee nailed it when it comes to the social interactions and reflections to be associated with the characters most of whom are historically accurate.
Having said that I still find them to be the most insufferable kinds of people with the exception of Alexander Pope and his friend Martha (but they get pushed to the back really early on to be replaced by Lord Petre and Arabelle of whom the rape of the lock is the satire).
There are some subplots involved but I do say none really come to much; the jacobite plot against queen Ann, discrimination of catholics, slave trade economy all make it to the stage but none really get going anywhere. On one hand that disappointed me but on the other hand it does add to the setting of the book as these things were very important in 17th century England but lost a lot of importance in the 18th. Still I do feel they get brushed of the side and get to neatly resolved in the last part of the book, a lot of wasted built up suspense because of it.
In a way the book and the setting reminds me of a study I read on Heian capital culture in Japan, a similar set of obsessions with social contact and keeping up appearances, writing poetry and quoting classics, engaging in activities only because everyone else is. The thing is, I know they (both the characters in this book and their social counterparts in Japan) did not live this life because of the fun of it. In it own way it is a stressful and expensive life in a society where social standing and marriage opportunities (and thus more social standing) are hanging on a flimsy thread. Even Alexander Pope in his melancholy (making him even more akin to the aforementioned Japanese who instead of the 'aloof' feeling as do the british nobles, also stressed on melancholy) is still forced to participate even tough he has a hunch back, lacks the latest fashion and is dependent on the good will of his friend Jervais the painter to stick around (at least until he finishes that poem). I know all of this, but still I felt a longing for a guillotine when I was reading as I do when confronted with what our current social celebrity elite is up to (or how little they are up to to be exact).
So yeah an interesting side tour in my usual reading choices one I wont regret but not one I will care to repeat very often.
Most characters are superficial vain egotrippers obsesses with their looks, making token appearances and clothing. But this is appropriate for the book is meant to be the making of story of British Poet Alexander pope's story; the rape of the lock. A satire meant to make fun of the vainglorious and idleness of the upper classes in early 18the century London. As a period piece the story works, I have a feeling Sophie Gee nailed it when it comes to the social interactions and reflections to be associated with the characters most of whom are historically accurate.
Having said that I still find them to be the most insufferable kinds of people with the exception of Alexander Pope and his friend Martha (but they get pushed to the back really early on to be replaced by Lord Petre and Arabelle of whom the rape of the lock is the satire).
There are some subplots involved but I do say none really come to much; the jacobite plot against queen Ann, discrimination of catholics, slave trade economy all make it to the stage but none really get going anywhere. On one hand that disappointed me but on the other hand it does add to the setting of the book as these things were very important in 17th century England but lost a lot of importance in the 18th. Still I do feel they get brushed of the side and get to neatly resolved in the last part of the book, a lot of wasted built up suspense because of it.
In a way the book and the setting reminds me of a study I read on Heian capital culture in Japan, a similar set of obsessions with social contact and keeping up appearances, writing poetry and quoting classics, engaging in activities only because everyone else is. The thing is, I know they (both the characters in this book and their social counterparts in Japan) did not live this life because of the fun of it. In it own way it is a stressful and expensive life in a society where social standing and marriage opportunities (and thus more social standing) are hanging on a flimsy thread. Even Alexander Pope in his melancholy (making him even more akin to the aforementioned Japanese who instead of the 'aloof' feeling as do the british nobles, also stressed on melancholy) is still forced to participate even tough he has a hunch back, lacks the latest fashion and is dependent on the good will of his friend Jervais the painter to stick around (at least until he finishes that poem). I know all of this, but still I felt a longing for a guillotine when I was reading as I do when confronted with what our current social celebrity elite is up to (or how little they are up to to be exact).
So yeah an interesting side tour in my usual reading choices one I wont regret but not one I will care to repeat very often.
May 23, 2012
Mah, mi è sembrata un po' un'occasione sprecata. Non c'è stato il tempo né il modo di approfondire i personaggi, e quindi non ho potuto più di tanto interessarmi alle loro vicende: non ho sentito affetto, preoccupazione, pietà, speranza per Arabella, non ho aspettato con ansia che Alexander ottenesse il suo meritato successo.
La storia è affascinante e avrebbe meritato molto di più - mi sono quasi più diverita a leggere la sorte dei personaggi nella vita reale alla fine del libro, e penso che questa vicenda sarebbe stata raccontata meglio in versione non-fiction: il periodo storico lo conosco poco (e in generale tutta l'epoca post-Tudor e pre-Georgiana) ma ultimamente avevo una mezza idea di leggere una biografia della regina Anna, e non mi sarebbe dispiaciuto immergermi in quell'atmosfera.
Sicuramente mi è piaciuta l'ambientazione nell'alta società londinese, ma avrei voluto che l'autrice passasse più tempo a parlarmi di questi personaggi. Alla fine il risultato è quello di un period drama che si guarda più che altro per vedere i costumi, le carrozze, e le case in Grosvenor Square, ma la cui trama si dimentica in fretta.
Non mi pento di averci speso tre euro ma, dato che in generale apprezzo molto la Vintage, mi sarei aspettata qualcosa in più (più Jane Austen e meno Tracy Chevalier, diciamo, ma non a caso questo romanzo in Italia è pubblicato da Neri Pozza).
La storia è affascinante e avrebbe meritato molto di più - mi sono quasi più diverita a leggere la sorte dei personaggi nella vita reale alla fine del libro, e penso che questa vicenda sarebbe stata raccontata meglio in versione non-fiction: il periodo storico lo conosco poco (e in generale tutta l'epoca post-Tudor e pre-Georgiana) ma ultimamente avevo una mezza idea di leggere una biografia della regina Anna, e non mi sarebbe dispiaciuto immergermi in quell'atmosfera.
Sicuramente mi è piaciuta l'ambientazione nell'alta società londinese, ma avrei voluto che l'autrice passasse più tempo a parlarmi di questi personaggi. Alla fine il risultato è quello di un period drama che si guarda più che altro per vedere i costumi, le carrozze, e le case in Grosvenor Square, ma la cui trama si dimentica in fretta.
Non mi pento di averci speso tre euro ma, dato che in generale apprezzo molto la Vintage, mi sarei aspettata qualcosa in più (più Jane Austen e meno Tracy Chevalier, diciamo, ma non a caso questo romanzo in Italia è pubblicato da Neri Pozza).
March 22, 2009
This was a wonderful and satisfying read. The book follows the life of author and poet Alexander Pope as he goes to London to find his fortune. It's a fictionalized (but well researched) account of how he came to write the poem that made his name "The Rape of the Lock." The book also follows Alexander's friends Martha and Teresea who too have come to London to make matches, as well as Arabella Fermor and Lord Petre, (the principals in "The Rape of the Lock" who go by the name of Belinda and The Baron in the poem). While most of the book was lovely, the epilogue was not. It was an example of an author overcoming the novel and its characters to make a point that just didn't make sense given the short period of time that the book covered. Also, several scenes discussing slavery were upsetting though to be expected given that the book is based in 18th century England before the abolishment of slavery. Other than that, great, great book.
October 13, 2008
If you like period pieces and Dangerous Liasons the movie you will love it! Even better, it is based on actual events of the early 1700's. The poem "The Rape of the Lock" was written about this same set of events by Alexander Pope - a character in the novel. At the end, the author sums up what happens to the actual people.
abandoned
September 18, 2015I got about 30 pages into it and it wasn't working for me. Went to the reviews on Amazon and got my answer. Not worth the time.
9/18/15. Lookee here.
9/18/15. Lookee here.
October 22, 2013
I love "The Rape of the Lock" but this book is really dull and too modern, and, quite frankly, I didn't like the writing. Show me someone is proud, don't tell me over and over and over again.
October 16, 2013
La storia del poema Il ricciolo rapito
Protagonista di questo romanzo è Alexander Pope, lo scrittore che è al terzo posto fra i più citati della letteratura inglese, dopo Shakespeare e Tennyson. Il libro — ricostruendo l’ambiente storico in cui si muoveva Pope, con accuratezza di dettagli — narra i primi passi del poeta nel mondo della poesia e la genesi del suo celeberrimo poema satirico Il ricciolo rapito (Rape of the lock 1712), in cui Pope descrive con stile epico — il poeta è noto anche per aver tradotto in lingua inglese l’opera di Omero — e al contempo satirico la nobiltà dell’epoca, guardando al “beau-monde” con interesse autentico, al limite del voyeuristico, un interesse comparabile al gossip dei giorni nostri. Oltre a Pope, i protagonisti del romanzo sono, appunto, i personaggi principali del poema eroicomico, ovvero i personaggi storici immortalati dal poeta nel Ricciolo.
La Gee ricostruisce la storia di Arabella Fermor (la Belinda di Pope) e del Barone Robert Petre, della Season (la Stagione del titolo italiano) che ha visto fiorire e appassire il loro amore, reciso bruscamente insieme al ricciolo di Arabella, con un gesto che al contempo lo rivela e lo rinnega; quel gesto che John Caryll, amico delle famiglie Petre e Fermor e di Pope stesso, suggerisce al poeta come ispirazione per un poema che possa riappacificare le due famiglie cattoliche.
Sì, perché in realtà sullo sfondo di tutto il romanzo — e anche del Ricciolo rapito — c’è la situazione storico-religiosa dell’Inghilterra; l’avversione per le famiglie cattoliche, che hanno perso ormai ogni potere e spesso anche ogni avere. Caryll è cattolico, suo zio ha perso molte proprietà ed è stato accusato di essere giacobita, ovvero traditore. I giacobiti, infatti, volevano insediare sul trono d’Inghilterra colui che consideravano il legittimo erede al trono, Giacomo III Stuart — in esilio in Francia — al posto della regina Anna, pure discendente degli Stuart. I Fermor e i Petre sono cattolici. Lord Petre paga la sua fede non potendo prendere il suo posto legittimo alla Camera dei Lords. Anche Pope è cattolico: suo padre non vorrebbe che Alexander fosse così affascinato dalla capitale, perché teme che a Londra le persecuzioni verso i cattolici siano ancora in auge.
Ma per il padre la capitale sarebbe stata sempre infestata dalle persecuzioni di cui un tempo era stato testimone. I genitori di Alexander erano stati cacciati quando era stato approvato il Decreto delle Dieci Miglia, che proibiva ai papisti di vivere a una distanza che permettesse di raggiungere la città in una sola giornata. Erano passati anni da allora, e i cattolici avevano ricominciato a tornare a Londra, ma il padre di Alexander era irremovibile. Suo figlio non avrebbe vissuto in città.
Essere cattolici in Inghilterra: un tema che sembra affascinare la Gee, laureatasi all’università di Sidney con una tesi su Evelyn Waugh. Lo scrittore, infatti, si convertì al cattolicesimo e molte delle sue opere, fra cui la famosa Ritorno a Brideshead (Brideshead Rivisited 1945), sono incentrate su questo tema.
Lo scandalo della Stagione presenta anche altri personaggi storici dell’epoca, coloro che hanno avuto un ruolo di spicco nella vita di Pope, come le due sorelle Blount, cugine di Arabella Fermor, Martha e Teresa, di cui Pope era innamorato ma non corrisposto sia per la sua estrazione sociale — in fondo egli è solo il figlio di un commerciante di tessuti — che per la sua deformità — sia Teresa che il critico Dennis lo definiscono “un rospo gibbuto”.
Troviamo anche Charles Jervas, il ritrattista più famoso dell’epoca, che diverrà ritrattista di corte, intimo amico di Pope; Lady Mary Pirrepont, un personaggio singolare — fu poetessa e introdusse in Inghilterra una rudimentale vaccinazione contro il vaiolo —, che ebbe con Pope alcuni dissidi; infine gli editori e i letterati dell’epoca, non ultimi Jonathan Swift e John Gay, con cui Alexander Pope fondò lo Scriblerus Club.
Questo romanzo ritrae fedelmente l’alta società dell’epoca: vuota, annoiata, barocca. Il lusso sfrenato nasconde l’insoddisfazione di una vita trascorsa in oziosi passatempi.
«Quando sono in città, Patty, non ho altra scelta che diventare un’altra persona» disse con un’alzata di spalle. «A Londra un uomo è ovunque, meno che a casa sua; si occupa di tutto, meno che degli affari propri; bacia tutte, meno che sua moglie. È la moda. Trascorro il mio tempo a fare tutto meno quello che dovrei, e trascorro l’intera giornata parlando di uomini che per me non hanno valore».
Non mancano i sentimenti di avidità; l’invidia fra le bellezze più corteggiate della Season, la gelosia di donne che vengono messe da parte per far posto a nuove passioni.
I nobili discutono con superficialità e indifferenza del traffico degli schiavi per le loro piantagioni, che consentiranno loro una vita di sprechi, mentre trecento uomini hanno dovuto attraversare in piedi in una stiva l’Oceano Atlantico per garantirgliela.
Lo stile della Gee è artefatto, carico di involuzioni nel linguaggio, un linguaggio che rispecchia perfettamente l’epoca storica in cui è ambientato il romanzo e completa la perfetta ricostruzione storica. Dietro a tutti i discorsi fioriti e tortuosi che fanno da passaporto in una società decadente, si celano personaggi con diverse personalità. Arabella e Teresa sembrano celare ben poco, da degne vuote rappresentanti del loro tempo, al contrario della meno bella ma più sensibile Martha.
La figura di Lord Petre è, tuttavia, sfuggente. Non si comprende se la Gee non sia riuscita a delinearla perfettamente o se, nonostante il coinvolgimento politico e sentimentale, egli resti un uomo del suo secolo: insensibile, indifferente e fortemente egoista. Egli è comunque un nobile, mentre Arabella continua ad essere una borghese — bellissima e raffinata, ma pur sempre una borghese.
Le loro reazioni la indussero a riflettere che, anche se Lord Petre si era innamorato di Arabella, l’abisso tra la nobiltà e la gente comune era profondo, forse persino più profondo di quello fra cattolici e protestanti. Si chiese davvero se Arabella sarebbe davvero stata in possesso dei nervi d’acciaio necessari per sopravvivere nel mondo di Lord Petre.
Il ritratto di una società capricciosa e decadente; la genesi di un famoso poema, l’incontro con gli artisti più celebri dell’epoca. Un romanzo avvincente che fa riflettere su temi talvolta dimenticati e che ci fa conoscere uno dei più grandi poeti inglesi.
Puoi leggere questa recensione QUI
Protagonista di questo romanzo è Alexander Pope, lo scrittore che è al terzo posto fra i più citati della letteratura inglese, dopo Shakespeare e Tennyson. Il libro — ricostruendo l’ambiente storico in cui si muoveva Pope, con accuratezza di dettagli — narra i primi passi del poeta nel mondo della poesia e la genesi del suo celeberrimo poema satirico Il ricciolo rapito (Rape of the lock 1712), in cui Pope descrive con stile epico — il poeta è noto anche per aver tradotto in lingua inglese l’opera di Omero — e al contempo satirico la nobiltà dell’epoca, guardando al “beau-monde” con interesse autentico, al limite del voyeuristico, un interesse comparabile al gossip dei giorni nostri. Oltre a Pope, i protagonisti del romanzo sono, appunto, i personaggi principali del poema eroicomico, ovvero i personaggi storici immortalati dal poeta nel Ricciolo.
La Gee ricostruisce la storia di Arabella Fermor (la Belinda di Pope) e del Barone Robert Petre, della Season (la Stagione del titolo italiano) che ha visto fiorire e appassire il loro amore, reciso bruscamente insieme al ricciolo di Arabella, con un gesto che al contempo lo rivela e lo rinnega; quel gesto che John Caryll, amico delle famiglie Petre e Fermor e di Pope stesso, suggerisce al poeta come ispirazione per un poema che possa riappacificare le due famiglie cattoliche.
Sì, perché in realtà sullo sfondo di tutto il romanzo — e anche del Ricciolo rapito — c’è la situazione storico-religiosa dell’Inghilterra; l’avversione per le famiglie cattoliche, che hanno perso ormai ogni potere e spesso anche ogni avere. Caryll è cattolico, suo zio ha perso molte proprietà ed è stato accusato di essere giacobita, ovvero traditore. I giacobiti, infatti, volevano insediare sul trono d’Inghilterra colui che consideravano il legittimo erede al trono, Giacomo III Stuart — in esilio in Francia — al posto della regina Anna, pure discendente degli Stuart. I Fermor e i Petre sono cattolici. Lord Petre paga la sua fede non potendo prendere il suo posto legittimo alla Camera dei Lords. Anche Pope è cattolico: suo padre non vorrebbe che Alexander fosse così affascinato dalla capitale, perché teme che a Londra le persecuzioni verso i cattolici siano ancora in auge.
Ma per il padre la capitale sarebbe stata sempre infestata dalle persecuzioni di cui un tempo era stato testimone. I genitori di Alexander erano stati cacciati quando era stato approvato il Decreto delle Dieci Miglia, che proibiva ai papisti di vivere a una distanza che permettesse di raggiungere la città in una sola giornata. Erano passati anni da allora, e i cattolici avevano ricominciato a tornare a Londra, ma il padre di Alexander era irremovibile. Suo figlio non avrebbe vissuto in città.
Essere cattolici in Inghilterra: un tema che sembra affascinare la Gee, laureatasi all’università di Sidney con una tesi su Evelyn Waugh. Lo scrittore, infatti, si convertì al cattolicesimo e molte delle sue opere, fra cui la famosa Ritorno a Brideshead (Brideshead Rivisited 1945), sono incentrate su questo tema.
Lo scandalo della Stagione presenta anche altri personaggi storici dell’epoca, coloro che hanno avuto un ruolo di spicco nella vita di Pope, come le due sorelle Blount, cugine di Arabella Fermor, Martha e Teresa, di cui Pope era innamorato ma non corrisposto sia per la sua estrazione sociale — in fondo egli è solo il figlio di un commerciante di tessuti — che per la sua deformità — sia Teresa che il critico Dennis lo definiscono “un rospo gibbuto”.
Troviamo anche Charles Jervas, il ritrattista più famoso dell’epoca, che diverrà ritrattista di corte, intimo amico di Pope; Lady Mary Pirrepont, un personaggio singolare — fu poetessa e introdusse in Inghilterra una rudimentale vaccinazione contro il vaiolo —, che ebbe con Pope alcuni dissidi; infine gli editori e i letterati dell’epoca, non ultimi Jonathan Swift e John Gay, con cui Alexander Pope fondò lo Scriblerus Club.
Questo romanzo ritrae fedelmente l’alta società dell’epoca: vuota, annoiata, barocca. Il lusso sfrenato nasconde l’insoddisfazione di una vita trascorsa in oziosi passatempi.
«Quando sono in città, Patty, non ho altra scelta che diventare un’altra persona» disse con un’alzata di spalle. «A Londra un uomo è ovunque, meno che a casa sua; si occupa di tutto, meno che degli affari propri; bacia tutte, meno che sua moglie. È la moda. Trascorro il mio tempo a fare tutto meno quello che dovrei, e trascorro l’intera giornata parlando di uomini che per me non hanno valore».
Non mancano i sentimenti di avidità; l’invidia fra le bellezze più corteggiate della Season, la gelosia di donne che vengono messe da parte per far posto a nuove passioni.
I nobili discutono con superficialità e indifferenza del traffico degli schiavi per le loro piantagioni, che consentiranno loro una vita di sprechi, mentre trecento uomini hanno dovuto attraversare in piedi in una stiva l’Oceano Atlantico per garantirgliela.
Lo stile della Gee è artefatto, carico di involuzioni nel linguaggio, un linguaggio che rispecchia perfettamente l’epoca storica in cui è ambientato il romanzo e completa la perfetta ricostruzione storica. Dietro a tutti i discorsi fioriti e tortuosi che fanno da passaporto in una società decadente, si celano personaggi con diverse personalità. Arabella e Teresa sembrano celare ben poco, da degne vuote rappresentanti del loro tempo, al contrario della meno bella ma più sensibile Martha.
La figura di Lord Petre è, tuttavia, sfuggente. Non si comprende se la Gee non sia riuscita a delinearla perfettamente o se, nonostante il coinvolgimento politico e sentimentale, egli resti un uomo del suo secolo: insensibile, indifferente e fortemente egoista. Egli è comunque un nobile, mentre Arabella continua ad essere una borghese — bellissima e raffinata, ma pur sempre una borghese.
Le loro reazioni la indussero a riflettere che, anche se Lord Petre si era innamorato di Arabella, l’abisso tra la nobiltà e la gente comune era profondo, forse persino più profondo di quello fra cattolici e protestanti. Si chiese davvero se Arabella sarebbe davvero stata in possesso dei nervi d’acciaio necessari per sopravvivere nel mondo di Lord Petre.
Il ritratto di una società capricciosa e decadente; la genesi di un famoso poema, l’incontro con gli artisti più celebri dell’epoca. Un romanzo avvincente che fa riflettere su temi talvolta dimenticati e che ci fa conoscere uno dei più grandi poeti inglesi.
Puoi leggere questa recensione QUI
April 27, 2020
The Scandal of the Season was simply not my type of book. It sounded promising, but ultimately was simply not the best. I was hoping that there would be more about the Jacobite plot in this story. Had there been more of the plot, this story would have been thrilling with the romance sprinkled in. However, it was mostly about very two dimensional, as flat as could be, characters that I simply could not care less about. There was hardly any depth to the characters and it made little to no difference to me which point of view each part of the story was told from as the characters were all the same. A couple parts were interesting. However, the interesting parts were the prologue and the poem at the end. Everything in the middle as simply... flat. While this was not my type of story and I could not bond with any of the characters, this may be a good read for someone who likes shallow characters, a fluffy story, up and coming poets, barely any historical thrill, women who are not as innocent and good as they would like the world to think.
April 20, 2011
This was a very clever novel. Like many first time authors I've read, it did take me a while to adjust to Gee's style of writing, which invokes the era pretty well. I also applaud Gee for attempting to write a novel on the premise of a famous poem, which is harder than one would think. The story is of young lovers Arabella and Robert. She, a commoner of uncommon beauty and he a young nobleman. All placed among Queen Anne's England with an underlying current of Jacobite drama.
What is the meat of the story is their affair and the emotions around it. I though it was quite clever how Gee enterwined their affair and the Catholic plot of the era together all based on Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock.
This is definitely an era I've read little about, and it certainly the grayest of history for me so it was wonderful to read a virtually authentic tale from the era.
My only issue with the story is it's ending. We're left without knowing the mental aftermath of our key figures and I felt that Gee skimmed over them after she was finished with them too fast, which always seems to be my biggest gripe in novels is that authors rush the ending.
Alas, I really enjoyed this book, it was well written and well paced and I will definitely pick up Gee's second novel, whenever she gets around to releasing one.
What is the meat of the story is their affair and the emotions around it. I though it was quite clever how Gee enterwined their affair and the Catholic plot of the era together all based on Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock.
This is definitely an era I've read little about, and it certainly the grayest of history for me so it was wonderful to read a virtually authentic tale from the era.
My only issue with the story is it's ending. We're left without knowing the mental aftermath of our key figures and I felt that Gee skimmed over them after she was finished with them too fast, which always seems to be my biggest gripe in novels is that authors rush the ending.
Alas, I really enjoyed this book, it was well written and well paced and I will definitely pick up Gee's second novel, whenever she gets around to releasing one.
September 2, 2010
his book was truly a wonderful literary historical fiction experience. I read The Rape of the Lock in my senior year of college, so I was glad the author included the entire poem at the end so I read that first to refresh my memory. I loved the author’s language in it. It was so rich and it really set the mood for the events that were happening. The characters were practically jumping off the page; I never had any picture of Alexander Pope in my mind, but now I do thanks to this book. Although there was one or two sex scenes I could have done without. For some reason, they just felt a bit odd and out of place for some reason, even though it wouldn’t have been odd for the characters to be in those scenes. Does that make any sense?
I did, however, enjoy how Alexander Pope was really the observer in all this cause at first I thought that the author might insert himself somehow into these circumstances. But no, Pope was the every diligent poet who just happened to be privy to these events. This book actually helped me understand the poem just that much more. And I think that for anyone who hasn’t even read the poem, this book is a very rewarding read.
I did, however, enjoy how Alexander Pope was really the observer in all this cause at first I thought that the author might insert himself somehow into these circumstances. But no, Pope was the every diligent poet who just happened to be privy to these events. This book actually helped me understand the poem just that much more. And I think that for anyone who hasn’t even read the poem, this book is a very rewarding read.
February 20, 2015
Gee's book tends to defy categorization. It's part mystery (really understated, however), part romance (again, understated), and mainly historical fiction. Set in early-eighteenth century London, it focuses on the aspiring writer Alexander Pope and his observations, aspirations, and private hopes. However, it focuses as well on the subjects of the poem that would eventually make his fortune, The Rape of the Lock, and how complicated, intricate, and fraught with disappointments the courtship process was.
It wasn't until after I put down the book that I realized how successfully Gee depicted the London and society of Alexander Pope's time. As an avid reader of historical fiction, I think it's safe to say that I have read a lot of novels in that genre, but this one will really stick with me as one that successfully depicts the society, time, and geographic location that composes the essence of a well-written historical novel.
It wasn't until after I put down the book that I realized how successfully Gee depicted the London and society of Alexander Pope's time. As an avid reader of historical fiction, I think it's safe to say that I have read a lot of novels in that genre, but this one will really stick with me as one that successfully depicts the society, time, and geographic location that composes the essence of a well-written historical novel.
February 8, 2011
I liked this book...there was nothing earth shattering about it but then again, it doesn't promise to be anything but enjoyable.
What I like best is the dialogue...Gee writes her characters with such wit and with the exception of a couple of anachronisms, does a great job of capturing London in the 1700s. And with note that this story takes place about a century before Jane Austen and the somewhat "pristine" sexual culture of the nineteenth century, this book revealed a part of London's sexual morality that I was a bit surprised to learn about!
The book tells you the story of a romantic scandal that inspired the poem "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope (literary historical fiction). This isn't the best piece LHF of I've read ("The Dante Club" was excellent), but I love reading books, such as this one, that bring in characters of note as ancillary parts to the story (I don't want to spoil anything so I won't name names). And I know that's part of historical fiction, but when it's someone I know a good deal about and someone I've read, it just tickles me.
What I like best is the dialogue...Gee writes her characters with such wit and with the exception of a couple of anachronisms, does a great job of capturing London in the 1700s. And with note that this story takes place about a century before Jane Austen and the somewhat "pristine" sexual culture of the nineteenth century, this book revealed a part of London's sexual morality that I was a bit surprised to learn about!
The book tells you the story of a romantic scandal that inspired the poem "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope (literary historical fiction). This isn't the best piece LHF of I've read ("The Dante Club" was excellent), but I love reading books, such as this one, that bring in characters of note as ancillary parts to the story (I don't want to spoil anything so I won't name names). And I know that's part of historical fiction, but when it's someone I know a good deal about and someone I've read, it just tickles me.
October 3, 2011
I'm glad I persevered with this, although at one stage in the middle I did feel like giving up. The problem was that the pace was so very slow, and it seemed like nothing was happening...and really both these observationsa re true to the end. But it also had flashes of brilliance, a paragraph or two that described emotions perfectly, or created some lovely picture in the reader's head. Indeed the best part of the whole thing for me was the ending paragraph of the first chapter, an increadibly effective desciption of a priest's thoughts as he is murdered. Aside from these flashes, what ade this book worth reading was that about 3/4 of the way through I had the sudden realsiation that I understood the way these character's behaved, the way they talked and bowed, the odd customs of when they sat and where they stood and what they should wear. And really,that's what I read historical fiction for, not the bawdy yet plain descriptions of affairs, but the sense of another time, another place. And that is something that The Scandal of the Season did provide.
February 4, 2014
It appears that I am in the minority regarding this review since I really loved this book! I have a passion for both English and history and this book fulfills both. The author is extremely knowledgeable on these subject matters and it is obvious that her thesis statement was the premise for this book. I love when an author is capable of using fictional characters to accurately portray the ambience of that time. This book Had me engaged and interested the entire time I look forward to future material written by this author
July 23, 2008
I just happened to pick this one off the New Books shelf at the library and am very glad that I did. I learned a great deal about the poet Alexander Pope and also a great deal about karma.
July 22, 2022
I picked up Sophie Gee’s The Scandal of the Season shortly after watching the first series of Bridgerton and it looked like similar campy, arch, nonsense with its Aubrey Beardsley cover and a detachable fuchsia face-mask. It’s not that. The blurb implies that the novel is a risky love story tied up with a Jacobite mystery but that’s more the subplot, the main story is about young Alexander Pope.
It’s strange, the story of young Pope, an outsider from high society because of his mercantile and Catholic background, further marked out by his illness and hunch-backed body, is by far the more interesting element in the book and downplayed by its cover. Pope (or simply Alexander, as the book frequently calls him) is a charming character, a little gauche and naive, with a deep ambition to be a great writer but a touching doubt that his talents won’t be enough to secure success. He’s far from the snidey, aggressive author of The Dunciad, having published a few pastoral poems that he’s afraid will lead to him being labelled as a sweet, country-born bard. His Essay in Criticism is about to come out and his principle emotion is worry, particularly that he will be attacked by the critic Dennis, who he’d later eviscerate as ‘The King of Dulness’.
The novel itself starts with a priest being murdered, starting a running sub-plot of Jacobean plotting. It’s frequently off to the side of the novel, with certain characters slipping away during society functions to share warnings and packets of money. I really enjoyed this little twist, so many books have the Jacobite plot in them, from Moonfleet to The Virtue of the Jest and it was nice to have it play out a little different.
Ultimately, the book is about recontextualising the event that prompted Pope’s Rape of the Lock. Within that poem, it was a pretty simple act, that a Baron cut off the lock of hair from a beauty because he wanted her so badly. Lord Petrie was the Baron and Arabella ‘Belle’ Fermor was the lady. Throughout the novel they have an illicit affair, starting as public flirting but becoming a private and sexual affair. This also allows Belle to have access to more exclusive social circles, which she revels in but it’s clear the two are in love with each other also. It does also mean this novel does have some fairly explicit love scenes and references to Rochester’s poems and visual pornography. It doesn’t make this book the bonkbuster it seems to have been marketed as, those scenes are few and the focus does seem more on Alexander Pope then this romance. When Petrie’s family discover and disapprove of the affair, they can leverage Petrie’s foolishness with the Jacobite stuff to make him publicly break off their secret engagement by stealing her hair - so the ‘trivial act’ of the poem is not as trivial as it first appears.
I really liked the dramatisation of Pope’s relationship with the Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha. The eldest is trying to ape Belle and enter her circles, the younger is aware that she’s not the kind of person to seek attention. Pope is romantically infatuated with Teresa but he is more drawn to Martha as a person - the three were going to have a complicated relationship for the rest of their lives.
There’s also depiction of Pope’s first meetings with Swift and Gay, lifelong friends (though largely by letter) and members of the Scriblerus club. There’s even a glimpse of how they bounced ideas off each other as they jokingly create an ‘unlearned’ club while chatting during an Italian-style opera. Swift even points out his own ‘savage indignation’, a description he’d have engraved on his tomb, though he does laugh at one point, something he was never reported to have done. Apparently he barely even smiled.
This book is set in a world where most social encounters involve verbal jousting. It might make the book seem a little odd or stiff at first but once acclimatised, it was interesting how well character was established through these formalised conversations. Pope has a skill at simile and comparison but often pitches his conversation too humbly or boldly, Teresa has a habit of being a little sharp, Arabella a little too insouciant. For the most part Lord Petrie pulls it off perfectly, but he has the confidence of title, cash and good looks to do so. That does mean it is genuinely shocking when a character ditches the social game and says exactly what they thought, and these moments were sprinkled well throughout the book.
Ultimately, I thought this a really decent novel about a young man of talent but little social standing making his first entrance into a highly stratified social world, with some romance, plotting and sex to provide some contrasts. I think it should have been more clearly marketed as what it was, as it would disappoint those expecting a campy sexfest or a thrilling Jacobite novel.
(My copy didn’t have The Rape of the Lock printed at the back.)
It’s strange, the story of young Pope, an outsider from high society because of his mercantile and Catholic background, further marked out by his illness and hunch-backed body, is by far the more interesting element in the book and downplayed by its cover. Pope (or simply Alexander, as the book frequently calls him) is a charming character, a little gauche and naive, with a deep ambition to be a great writer but a touching doubt that his talents won’t be enough to secure success. He’s far from the snidey, aggressive author of The Dunciad, having published a few pastoral poems that he’s afraid will lead to him being labelled as a sweet, country-born bard. His Essay in Criticism is about to come out and his principle emotion is worry, particularly that he will be attacked by the critic Dennis, who he’d later eviscerate as ‘The King of Dulness’.
The novel itself starts with a priest being murdered, starting a running sub-plot of Jacobean plotting. It’s frequently off to the side of the novel, with certain characters slipping away during society functions to share warnings and packets of money. I really enjoyed this little twist, so many books have the Jacobite plot in them, from Moonfleet to The Virtue of the Jest and it was nice to have it play out a little different.
Ultimately, the book is about recontextualising the event that prompted Pope’s Rape of the Lock. Within that poem, it was a pretty simple act, that a Baron cut off the lock of hair from a beauty because he wanted her so badly. Lord Petrie was the Baron and Arabella ‘Belle’ Fermor was the lady. Throughout the novel they have an illicit affair, starting as public flirting but becoming a private and sexual affair. This also allows Belle to have access to more exclusive social circles, which she revels in but it’s clear the two are in love with each other also. It does also mean this novel does have some fairly explicit love scenes and references to Rochester’s poems and visual pornography. It doesn’t make this book the bonkbuster it seems to have been marketed as, those scenes are few and the focus does seem more on Alexander Pope then this romance. When Petrie’s family discover and disapprove of the affair, they can leverage Petrie’s foolishness with the Jacobite stuff to make him publicly break off their secret engagement by stealing her hair - so the ‘trivial act’ of the poem is not as trivial as it first appears.
I really liked the dramatisation of Pope’s relationship with the Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha. The eldest is trying to ape Belle and enter her circles, the younger is aware that she’s not the kind of person to seek attention. Pope is romantically infatuated with Teresa but he is more drawn to Martha as a person - the three were going to have a complicated relationship for the rest of their lives.
There’s also depiction of Pope’s first meetings with Swift and Gay, lifelong friends (though largely by letter) and members of the Scriblerus club. There’s even a glimpse of how they bounced ideas off each other as they jokingly create an ‘unlearned’ club while chatting during an Italian-style opera. Swift even points out his own ‘savage indignation’, a description he’d have engraved on his tomb, though he does laugh at one point, something he was never reported to have done. Apparently he barely even smiled.
This book is set in a world where most social encounters involve verbal jousting. It might make the book seem a little odd or stiff at first but once acclimatised, it was interesting how well character was established through these formalised conversations. Pope has a skill at simile and comparison but often pitches his conversation too humbly or boldly, Teresa has a habit of being a little sharp, Arabella a little too insouciant. For the most part Lord Petrie pulls it off perfectly, but he has the confidence of title, cash and good looks to do so. That does mean it is genuinely shocking when a character ditches the social game and says exactly what they thought, and these moments were sprinkled well throughout the book.
Ultimately, I thought this a really decent novel about a young man of talent but little social standing making his first entrance into a highly stratified social world, with some romance, plotting and sex to provide some contrasts. I think it should have been more clearly marketed as what it was, as it would disappoint those expecting a campy sexfest or a thrilling Jacobite novel.
(My copy didn’t have The Rape of the Lock printed at the back.)
July 31, 2021
Increíblemente aburrida y fastuosamente banal, El escándalo de la temporada es una novela pesada que no merece el tiempo que inviertes en ella. Su trama tan poco original y carente de cualquier chispa de ingenio, hacen que leerla suponga un esfuerzo estéril ya que lo único que obtienes es somnolencia en cantidades industriales.
Sé que es el primer libro de Sophie Gee, autora de este bodrio. Para ser novata, literariamente hablando, ha conseguido una novela correcta, desde el punto de vista estructural. Pero su estilo de escritura resulta insulso y bastante mediocre. Su prosa tiene un ritmo asimétrico, resultando en cualquier caso sencilla de leer. Cuenta con un lenguaje puramente pragmático, con algunas licencias líricas, unas descripciones correctas y unos personajes horribles. Y en eso no hay discusión posible. Arabella y Lord Petre, pese a ser personajes históricos, resultan superficiales y vacíos. Y mejor ni hablamos de la representación de Alexander Pope en este libro, casi una ofensa para los devotos del gran poeta inglés.
Como buena novela rosa, El escándalo de la temporada, pretende, por lo menos en teoría, contar una historia de “amor” que ocurrió de verdad en el siglo XVIII. Pero fracasa miserablemente y te cuenta “algo” que no se ni como clasificar. Juzgad vosotros mismos. En esencia, la autora nos narra el cortejo de Arabella Fermor, niña bien mimada y consentida, poseedora de una gran belleza y una corta inteligencia, por parte de Lord Petre, Barón de dudosa reputación. Pero, os voy advirtiendo. Si esperáis ver una trama divertida, trepidante o simplemente romántica, os vais a llevar el fiasco de vuestra vida. La narración del cortejo es tan sosa, estúpida y poco pasional, que ni las pocas escenas de cama (absurdamente sosas) consiguen aportar un poco de pasión, ingenio o química a esta historia. Por eso, y para que no se haga insufriblemente aburrido del todo, la autora mete otro arco argumental: las aventuras y desventuras del Sr. Alexander Pope en su camino a convertirse en un gran poeta. Y, a pesar de que esta historia tampoco es que resulte mucho más entretenida que la primera, por lo menos es soportable y te permite pasar el rato, hasta llegar al final, que dicho sea de paso, además de incompleto, aporta poco a la historia en general.
En suma, El escándalo de la temporada, hace honor a su nombre. Y es que leer esto, consigue escandalizar hasta al más permisivo de los lectores. Mi consejo es que ni lo toquéis. No perdáis el tiempo en este libro y usadlo en lecturas más provechosas o simplemente más entretenidas.
Sé que es el primer libro de Sophie Gee, autora de este bodrio. Para ser novata, literariamente hablando, ha conseguido una novela correcta, desde el punto de vista estructural. Pero su estilo de escritura resulta insulso y bastante mediocre. Su prosa tiene un ritmo asimétrico, resultando en cualquier caso sencilla de leer. Cuenta con un lenguaje puramente pragmático, con algunas licencias líricas, unas descripciones correctas y unos personajes horribles. Y en eso no hay discusión posible. Arabella y Lord Petre, pese a ser personajes históricos, resultan superficiales y vacíos. Y mejor ni hablamos de la representación de Alexander Pope en este libro, casi una ofensa para los devotos del gran poeta inglés.
Como buena novela rosa, El escándalo de la temporada, pretende, por lo menos en teoría, contar una historia de “amor” que ocurrió de verdad en el siglo XVIII. Pero fracasa miserablemente y te cuenta “algo” que no se ni como clasificar. Juzgad vosotros mismos. En esencia, la autora nos narra el cortejo de Arabella Fermor, niña bien mimada y consentida, poseedora de una gran belleza y una corta inteligencia, por parte de Lord Petre, Barón de dudosa reputación. Pero, os voy advirtiendo. Si esperáis ver una trama divertida, trepidante o simplemente romántica, os vais a llevar el fiasco de vuestra vida. La narración del cortejo es tan sosa, estúpida y poco pasional, que ni las pocas escenas de cama (absurdamente sosas) consiguen aportar un poco de pasión, ingenio o química a esta historia. Por eso, y para que no se haga insufriblemente aburrido del todo, la autora mete otro arco argumental: las aventuras y desventuras del Sr. Alexander Pope en su camino a convertirse en un gran poeta. Y, a pesar de que esta historia tampoco es que resulte mucho más entretenida que la primera, por lo menos es soportable y te permite pasar el rato, hasta llegar al final, que dicho sea de paso, además de incompleto, aporta poco a la historia en general.
En suma, El escándalo de la temporada, hace honor a su nombre. Y es que leer esto, consigue escandalizar hasta al más permisivo de los lectores. Mi consejo es que ni lo toquéis. No perdáis el tiempo en este libro y usadlo en lecturas más provechosas o simplemente más entretenidas.
August 8, 2025
Oh good grief. Parked indefinitely on page 87.
I picked it up at a charity book fair because this copy had the Beardsley cover, which gave me a hint of what it’s allegedly about and … I was intrigued.
Alexander Pope as a fictional character? Sign me up!
And I’d still like to know about his idea for The Rape of the Lock, but at this time, I really can’t be bothered reading my way up to that bit. But it’s annoying, because some of the bits are good. The Views of Literary London are interesting and vivid, but far too infrequent!
It strikes me that this is a case of the editors really letting the author and the readers down. The on page writing is fine, but as a novel, it has rookie errors!
Why didn’t they do something about it?
Like: who is the main character? Is it supposed to be Pope? It is, isn’t it? Then why are we spending so freaking long vapouring about with Arabella and this rich prat she fancies?
And I do mean vapouring because we’re not doing anything. We’re going to parties and having Hints of Things.
Still, it sent me off to read The Rape of the Lock properly through for the first time.
He was very good, that Pope, wasn’t he?
Shame we weren’t getting more of him—or a more vivid picture of him—in the story. There was nothing snarky or sharp in his view. Nothing to hint at the satirist. And satirists are a type. There should be signs. A satirist’s point of view.
But no: instead it’s all stilted pleasantries, which is fine for a gauche lad of 23 who’d had a sheltered upbringing trying to get on in London. But we needed more … oh … that’s the other thing …
The problem with the point of view.
I literally can’t tell whether it’s supposed to be multiple view third person—but her control is rather weak (rookie error), or it’s actually intentionally omniscient, but she didn’t commit to it.
Either way, there’s not enough depth to it and it’s not driving her storytelling enough.
Sorry, this was book critique, writing class edition, wasn’t it?
I picked it up at a charity book fair because this copy had the Beardsley cover, which gave me a hint of what it’s allegedly about and … I was intrigued.
Alexander Pope as a fictional character? Sign me up!
And I’d still like to know about his idea for The Rape of the Lock, but at this time, I really can’t be bothered reading my way up to that bit. But it’s annoying, because some of the bits are good. The Views of Literary London are interesting and vivid, but far too infrequent!
It strikes me that this is a case of the editors really letting the author and the readers down. The on page writing is fine, but as a novel, it has rookie errors!
Why didn’t they do something about it?
Like: who is the main character? Is it supposed to be Pope? It is, isn’t it? Then why are we spending so freaking long vapouring about with Arabella and this rich prat she fancies?
And I do mean vapouring because we’re not doing anything. We’re going to parties and having Hints of Things.
Still, it sent me off to read The Rape of the Lock properly through for the first time.
He was very good, that Pope, wasn’t he?
Shame we weren’t getting more of him—or a more vivid picture of him—in the story. There was nothing snarky or sharp in his view. Nothing to hint at the satirist. And satirists are a type. There should be signs. A satirist’s point of view.
But no: instead it’s all stilted pleasantries, which is fine for a gauche lad of 23 who’d had a sheltered upbringing trying to get on in London. But we needed more … oh … that’s the other thing …
The problem with the point of view.
I literally can’t tell whether it’s supposed to be multiple view third person—but her control is rather weak (rookie error), or it’s actually intentionally omniscient, but she didn’t commit to it.
Either way, there’s not enough depth to it and it’s not driving her storytelling enough.
Sorry, this was book critique, writing class edition, wasn’t it?
June 8, 2021
I really enjoyed this novel! Many complaints against it is due to the 18th century immersion and the plot being more a slice of historical life with hints of political intrigue and yet that is what I love about it! I find Alexander Pope's involvement in the story charming, easy to be swept into and amusing to imagine the poet, with his height and disability, navigate the world with immense self-pressure and humour. I will admit that the key relationship of Arabella and Robert Petre are more surface, it is the intrigue and lead up to the Rape of The Locke which make it nice to read. To me my favourite, it not most emotional, relationship was the friendship and one sided love between Pope and Martha Blount. Its a great novel for the historical invested who love a scenery piece to wonder through.
September 9, 2018
Beautifully done historical fiction made even more fascinating because the cast of characters is real. It chronicles the rise to fame of poet Alexander Pope, & the set he runs with over one fated "season" in London that leads to him writing the poem that skyrocketed him to stardom, so to speak, The Rape of the Lock. Included at the end of the book is the cast of characters, & the "what happened next?" to them historically, as well as a printing of the short, original version of the poem itself.
Read
November 10, 2019Uma história mais instigante pelo modo sutil como a autora demonstrou o comportamento de uma época, Inglaterra no início do século 18, do que pelo desfecho dos seus personagens. No Brasil o livro foi vendido erroneamente, pois trata-se mais de uma ficção histórica do que um romance, no sentido mais doce do gênero. Esperava um pouco mais sobre a ambientação política da época, já que o jacobinismo era algo a ser severamente suprimido a época. No mais, tem uma narrativa lenta, mas a história tem lá seu quê de interessante...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2017
STORIA DI UNA POSSESSIONE
Mi sono spesso chiesta se non fosse stato il caso di esorcizzare l'autrice durante la sua stesura di questo libro.
Come si spiegherebbe altrimanti l'abilità della sua penna nell'alternare perfette pagine di ambientazione storica, descrizioni di ambienti e dialoghi di impeccabile cortesia a improvvisi cambi di umore dove i suoi personaggi si ritrovano a "vomitare" perle di finezza come "mettimi la mano sulla fixx"?!
Non c'è altra spiegazione, possessione o bipolarismo!
Mi sono spesso chiesta se non fosse stato il caso di esorcizzare l'autrice durante la sua stesura di questo libro.
Come si spiegherebbe altrimanti l'abilità della sua penna nell'alternare perfette pagine di ambientazione storica, descrizioni di ambienti e dialoghi di impeccabile cortesia a improvvisi cambi di umore dove i suoi personaggi si ritrovano a "vomitare" perle di finezza come "mettimi la mano sulla fixx"?!
Non c'è altra spiegazione, possessione o bipolarismo!
September 21, 2020
Un avvincente romanzo storico ambientato nella Londra del Settecento, durante "la stagione", con aristocratici e avventurieri, nobildonne e cameriere, poeti e artisti. Parallelamente si muove anche la contrapposizione fra cattolici e protestanti, fra Wigh e Tories. Insomma in questo romanzo c'è tutto, e la storia viene raccontata riuscendo a creare un insieme ben congegnato e approfondito di interpreti e caratteristi. Ne sono rimasta molto soddisfatta
February 3, 2022
Ughhhhh it hurts, Lord Petre and Arabella’s love was so tense and pure, looooved it
The writer had a really strong contextual knowledge and immersed the reader
I kinda hated Teresa, so rude to Alexander and disliked bell just her looks
I can’t imagine what Arabella felt when she heard that Petre was to be married. Worst part is that he didn’t even tell her the full story to the betrayal and she had to guess what happened!!!!
Thanks Jade for the book <3
The writer had a really strong contextual knowledge and immersed the reader
I kinda hated Teresa, so rude to Alexander and disliked bell just her looks
I can’t imagine what Arabella felt when she heard that Petre was to be married. Worst part is that he didn’t even tell her the full story to the betrayal and she had to guess what happened!!!!
Thanks Jade for the book <3
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2025
Promising concept but slow pace & not immersive. Tells the story behind the poem “The Rape of the Lock”.
“In tasks so bold, can little men engage.” (5)
“Such an odd man, subject to headache and ill-humor; writing his poems and talking about Vigil, with no fortune to speak of. So why did she feel such a lurch in her heart when she saw him?” (15) / girl we got the same type fr
“Beware of all, but most beware of man!” (153) / heard
“In tasks so bold, can little men engage.” (5)
“Such an odd man, subject to headache and ill-humor; writing his poems and talking about Vigil, with no fortune to speak of. So why did she feel such a lurch in her heart when she saw him?” (15) / girl we got the same type fr
“Beware of all, but most beware of man!” (153) / heard
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