This collection includes three of Alexander Pope’s best works:

The Rape of the Lock and A Key to the Lock

Included in this volume are the original two-canto version of The Rape of the Lock and Pope’s hilarious mock-interpretation of the poem as a seditious work, A Key to the Lock.

Scriblerus

An account of the birth, the infancy, the schooling, the diet-planning, the unconventional love affairs and the attainments of this child prodigy, The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus is surely the funniest imaginary biography ever written.

The Art of Sinking in Poetry

Taking the form of an ironic guide to writing bad verse, Pope’s tongue-in-cheek essay is wickedly funny in its lampooning of various pompous poetasters, as well as being essential reading for any budding writer wishing to avoid sinking to the unintentionally ridiculous, and instead reach for the sublime.