Author Description

Product Description Jane Austen meets Philip Roth in a sexy, sparkling debut novel reconstructing the real-life scandal that inspired Alexander Pope's famous poem "The Rape of the Lock." London, 1711. The rich young offspring of the city's fashionable families fill their days with masquerade balls, opera engagements, and clandestine courtships. Leading the pursuit of pleasure are the beautiful Arabella Fermor, with her circle of beaus, and Robert Petre, seventh Baron of Ingatestone, a man-about-town with his choice of mistresses. Small, sickly, and almost penniless, Alexander Pope is peripheral by birth, yet his dazzling wit and ambition gain him unlikely entrance into high society. Privy to every nuance and drama, he is a brilliant and ruthless observer. As the forbidden passion between Arabella and Lord Petre deepens, fortunes change and reputations— even lives—are imperiled. Pope transforms their affair and its demise into a risqué poem, "The Rape of the Lock," that catapults him to fame and fortune. A witty, provocative tale of intrigue, seduction, and betrayal, The Scandal of the Season captures a time when marriage was a market, sex was a temptation fraught with danger, and a costume could conceal a dandy or a murderer. Review There's enough intrigue unfolding behind carriage doors and under bed curtains to satisfy both those modern students who pored over Pope's masterpiece and those who muddled through it. - USA Today There's enough intrigue unfolding behind carriage doors and under bed curtains to satisfy both those modern students who pored over Pope's masterpiece and those who muddled through it. - USA Today ( USA Today ) Review "A seduction reminiscent of Dangerous Liaisons…captures the breezy poetic romance of Shakespeare in Love, recast to star Alexander Pope."—Ian Caldwell, coauthor of The Rule of Four From the Back Cover<