Alexander Pope

Part of a series which follows the outline of writers' working lives, aiming to trace the professional, publishing and social contexts which shaped their writing. This is a sympathetic portrait of the poet who overcame the obscurity of his origins to become the uncrowned Laureate of his age.

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This is a lively and authoritative guide to the life Pope called 'a warfare upon earth'. Dr Rosslyn gives a sympathetic portrait of the poet who overcame the obscurity of his origins and the embarrassment of his deformity to become the uncrowned laureate of his age - and also make the largest literary fortune since Shakespeare's. She describes the mixture of passion and pragmatism that created poetry out of a legion of enemies (and a wide circle of distinguished friends), and pays tribute to the professionalism of a poet who thought no sacrifice too great for his art.