The Dunciad (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: Alexander Pope
- Type of Work: Mock-Epic Poetry
- Genres: Poetry, Mock-heroic poetry, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Literature, Writing, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Criticism, Gods or goddesses, Heroes or heroism, Princes or princesses, Underworld or Hades
- Locales: London, England, Underworld
During the early days of Grub Street, a turbulent age of satire, party journalism, and personal attack, few writers had as many literary enemies as Alexander Pope. But amid this hurly-burly of hacks, critics, scholars, and publishers, the waspish, sickly Pope easily held his own, giving point to his pronouncement that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Like Dante in THE INFERNO, Pope salted away his enemies in THE DUNCIAD.
Two versions of THE DUNCIAD were required: a 1728 three-book version featuring Lewis Theobald Pope’s rival editor of Shakespeare, and a 1743 four-book...
[The entire page is 542 words long]
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