Alexander Pope

Stephen, Leslie, 1832-1904Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 383K words
Chapters: 39

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Alexander Pope by Leslie Stephen. Author: Stephen, Leslie, 1832-1904. Language: English. Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature. Release Date: Oct 29, 2006

Editor's review

This is a biographical and critical study of Alexander Pope by the British critic Leslie Stephen, a classic work of English literary criticism. Writing from the perspective of a Victorian critic, Stephen traces Pope's life, the conditions in which he wrote, and his major works, combining biographical narrative with literary evaluation; the language is English. Its value lies in offering a traditional path to understanding eighteenth-century English poetry and Pope's life and work, making it a useful companion to histories of literature and criticism. Its strength is that the author was a well-known critic and biographer, and the prose carries the distinctive critical temper of its age. It is typically read in English literature coursework, as extended reading alongside Pope's works, or as a free eBook. Note that this is a public-domain reprint in electronic form, not a new piece of modern scholarship, and should be read with an awareness of its place in the history of criticism.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English literature students who need to understand Pope's life and the history of criticism
Advanced readers interested in eighteenth-century English poetry
Readers studying Victorian methods of literary criticism
Self-learners accustomed to reading English public-domain eBooks

Not a good fit for

General readers looking for a Chinese translation or an introductory guide
Specialist researchers expecting contemporary scholarship and new sources
Readers with little patience for long English sentences and classical literary background

Reading tips

Read selections from Pope's major works first, then use the relevant chapters of this book to understand the background
Note the author's Victorian critical stance and word choices as you read
Use it alongside a history of English literature, taking notes chapter by chapter to build a timeline
Use the eBook's search function to jump between reviews of Pope's major works

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a work by Pope himself or a biography?

It is a biography and critical study of Alexander Pope by Leslie Stephen, not an anthology of Pope's own writings. It focuses on narrating his life and evaluating his works, so readers can learn about Pope and his writing through it; to read Pope's poetry itself, they will need a separate collection.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers?

The original is a critical biography from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with long sentences and much literary terminology, so it poses a challenge for non-native readers. Those with university-level English reading ability can manage with a dictionary and literary-historical references; beginners are advised to start with a Chinese introduction or a simplified overview before attempting it.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

This edition is a free public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg, digitized from an earlier publication, which makes it easy to obtain and search. It generally contains no modern scholarly annotations or updates and is laid out as plain text, so readers must supply background material themselves.

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About the author

Stephen, Leslie, 1832-1904 Author

Leslie Stephen (1832–1904) was a Victorian-era English author and literary critic; details of his life and education are limited in publicly available sources. Twelve of his works are held here, spanning literary criticism and intellectual history. The three volumes of Hours in a Library discuss books and reading in an essayistic style that is unhurried yet incisive, while his biographical studies Samuel Johnson and Alexander Pope combine accounts of the subjects' lives with analysis of their writings. The two volumes of The English Utilitarians trace the development of British utilitarian thought in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century examines changes in literary taste and fashion against their social background. His writing is known for solid scholarship and clear prose, and is often grouped among inspirational and personal-growth titles; it has had some influence on later English literary criticism and intellectual history.