Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: July 19th, 2007
Source: I purchased this book.
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.
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hahah it does look like a bodice ripper book! I'm surprised myself. I remember reading "The Rape of the Lock" in college it was a nice poem
what an interesting novel though. Thanks for the info.