Alexander Pope in the Making

Reviews / Votes

Hone writes with clarity and is a thoughtful guide, showing how Pope's early work is more than a mere gateway to the Dunciad ... Hone's emphasis on Pope's epic poetry, neglected translations and editorial work is entirely his own. Alexander Pope in the Making is not only deeply researched, it sheds new light on this most complex of men. * Annette Rubery, The Johnson Society Transactions * Joseph Hone's meticulous, powerfully argued new monograph Alexander Pope in the Making, puts a different spin on how Pope used print publication strategically to build his youthful identity . . . Hone assembles plenty of evidence to make the case that, contrary to his public self-presentation, Pope's identity as a writer was formed not by the Scriblerus Club but by the habits of "innuendo and ambiguity" used by Catholic and Jacobite insiders to strengthen their community and avoid public attention during years of active religious persecution and Jacobite sedition. * Sophie Gee, Times Literary Supplement * Another excellent new study, Joseph Hone's Alexander Pope in the Making [directs] us toward the strategic manner in which Pope constructed himself as a "classic author" during his lifetime, seeking to fix his reputation before others could fix it for him. * Clare Bucknell, New York Review of Books * a very good work of scholarship that sets out to paint a highly political version of the young Pope's formation as a covert or cultural Jacobite in the time of Queen Anne . . . He gets there by performing a deep dive into the archives and it is fascinating * Robert Phiddian, Australian Book Review * Alexander Pope in the Making offers not merely a new interpretation of the poetry but also a way of reading that considers the context from which the poetry emerged. This new light on a poet who is often deemed difficult creates a modern appreciation for both Pope and his contemporaries. Hone's work is a valuable contribution to the study of 18th-century literature. * M. H. Kealy, CHOICE * This elegant and adroit investigation of the literary and political coteries in which the young Alexander Pope came to maturity offers a radically different version of the poet's early life. * Peter Davidson, Literary Review * The single-author study enjoys a difficult relationship with literary studies...Joseph Hone and Daniel Cook have given us volumes that each offer elegant solutions to this dilemma. * Claude Willian, Rowan University, Eighteenth-Century Studies Vol. 56, No. 4 *