Scriblerus (Hesperus Classics) - Softcover

Alexander Pope; Peter Ackroyd (foreword)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843910012 ISBN 13: 9781843910015

Publisher: Hesperus Press Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

Physical description; x, 101 p. ; 20 cm. Subjects; Scriblerus Club - Studies. Pedantry - Fiction. Pride and vanity - Fiction.

About this title

Review:

'this malicious and energetic (and little-known) satire on intellectual pretensions is an important rediscovery: a fugitive text published in 1741 in the great Augustan poet's collected prose works, though written much earlier by Pope, with the help of his crony, physician-wit-bon vivant John Arbuthnot (and possibly with help from their mutual friend Jonathan Swift). It relates the efforts of self-styled philosopher (and egotist) Cornelius Scriblerus to breed and develop a genius: his son Martinus. Thereafter, we're treated to the latter's educative adventures, including an early "disposition to the mathematics . . . [evidenced] by his drawing parallel lines on his bread and butter"; the study of anatomy by observation of a corpse brought home for his edification; complex litigation ensuing from Martinus's love for a beauteous Siamese twin; and the production of such eminent arcana as his "complete digest of the laws of nature." This effervescent lampoon anticipates both Swift's mature satires and Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. More than a bit arch, but marvelously entertaining. One wonders how it ever drifted out of the canon.' --Kirkus Review

'...a comedy undertaken by the most brilliant and most facetious men of their time' --Peter Ackroyd

'a good-humoured p***-take, happy to mock the more innocuous follies of its time, whether they be the preening self-love of the genteel or the pretensions of the literary world.' --The Guardian

From the Author:

‘a comedy undertaken by the most brilliant and most facetious men of their time; as such, it has been unjustly neglected by those who prefer longer if less compelling works' – From the foreword by Peter Ackroyd

About this edition

• Publisher: Hesperus Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1843910012
• ISBN 13: 9781843910015
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112