By: Sophie Gee

A tale based on the early eighteenth-century scandal that inspired Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" finds a sickly and impoverished Alexander Pope gaining entry into high society and closely following a forbidden affair between the rakish Lord Petre and the coquettish Arabella. A first novel. Read by Cameron Stewart. Simultaneous.

Review: "[Sophie] Gee's take on the Paris Hilton-like figures who pranced through London 300 years ago manages to be simultaneously tabloid bawdy and academy proper....A shrewd debut."
Review: "Delightfully gossipy, psychologically insightful, and historically fascinating."
Review: "Gee writes with scholarly confidence, underpinning the racy intrigue of her account with a real understanding of the characters and their world."
Review by Gideon Lewis-Kraus: "[A] clever and inviting piece of critical biography masquerading as a light comedy of manners."
Review by Kathryn Sutherland: "There is nothing creakingly historical about this clever story of politics, literary chatter, moral vacuity and bleak marriages....For all its fluency and stylish packaging, however, it has seriousness and depth."