Mack, Maynard, 1909-2001.

The garden and the city : retirement and politics in the later poetry of Pope, 1731-1743 / Maynard Mack.

[Toronto] : University of Toronto Press, 1969.

xviii, 341 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 26 cm

"In his preface Maynard Mack writes, 'Criticism in the case of literary figures is never entirely separable from literary history and biography; yet it is more or less separable, and the merit of this book, if it has any, lies in the two latter areas. If I am judged to be right about the profoundly political orientation of most of Pope's poems of the [17] 30's and about there being a certain emblematic quality in his way of life at Twickenham whose shaping influence is also felt inside the poems, here maybe an additional complexity of texture which criticism will wish to take into account". In this work Mr. Mack explores the tension in Pope's life between the poet's desire for seclusion and privacy and his concern for political and social issues. In a vivid and factual reconstruction including many illustrations and contemporary documents, he presents the famous garden, grotto, and villa as a setting that both expressed Pope as a man and contributed to the dramatic personality who speaks to us in the satires and epistles. At the same time, he uncovers and elucidates a vein of political satire which is present in these poems to a degree not hitherto recognized. Retirement attitudes, Mr Mack argues, combine with political attitudes to effect in all Pope's later poetry a confrontation of Sir Robert Walpole's England with a poet's country of the mind: "Pope's "creation" of Twickenham constituted an act of the mythopoeic imagination and (to borrow a phrase from the manuals of religious meditation) a 'composition of place' without which he could not have written his mature poems as we have them". Mr Mack provides here a biological and historical context that throws new light on the mature works of one of the great poets and satirists of English literature" - Publisher.

0802052096
9780802052094

Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744 Criticism and interpretation.
Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744.
Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744 Critique et interprétation.
Pope, Alexander 1688-1744
Pope, Alexander, (1688-1744) Critique et interprétation.
Pope, Alexander.
Politics and literature Great Britain History 18th century.
Political poetry, English History and criticism.
Pastoral poetry, English History and criticism.
Verse satire, English History and criticism.
City and town life in literature.
Country life in literature.
Retirement in literature.
Politique et littérature Grande-Bretagne Histoire 18e siècle.
Poésie politique anglaise Histoire et critique.
Poésie pastorale anglaise Histoire et critique.
Poésie satirique anglaise Histoire et critique.
Vie urbaine dans la littérature.
Vie rurale dans la littérature.
Retraite dans la littérature.
Pastoral poetry, English
Political poetry, English
Politics and literature
Verse satire, English
Politik
Great Britain
Geschichte 1731-1743

Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History

Localisation: Bibliothèque main 4419
Cote: W16203; ID:87-B20091
Statut: Disponible