Title: The Scandal of the Season
Author: Sophie Gee
A fictionalized version of the story behind Alexander Pope's famous epic poem "The Rape of the Lock."
If I think way back on my English Literature classes, I vaguely remember "The Rape of the Lock" and the thing I remember most about it is the way Pope juxtaposed the high and the low, and wrote in a light, mocking tone. The Scandal of the Season does a good job of capturing the fashions and mores of the day, and Gee develops interesting characters, based on the lives of Arabella (Belinda, in the poem) and Robert. So yeah, I liked the book. In the way I like the Shopaholic books. It's light and a fun read, and even though you might think you're getting a weighty novel from the subject matter, it's pretty fluffy. The only thing that really got my dander up was the way married women seemed to give up their economic rights (if they had any in the first place) in order to have sexual freedom. Unmarried women, on the other hand, were prized for their virginity and their potential dowries more than for any personal characteristics.
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