On Satire

'The Dunciad' by Alexander Pope


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Nobody hated better than Alexander Pope. Despite his reputation as the quintessentially refined versifier of the early 18th century, he was also a class A, ultra-pure, surreal, visionary mega-hater, and The Dunciad is his monument to the hate he felt for almost all the other writers of his time. Written over fifteen years of burning fury, Pope’s mock-epic tells the story of the Empire of Dullness and its lineage of terrible writers, the Dunces. Unlike other satires featured in this series so far, it makes no effort to hide the identities of its targets. Clare and Colin provide an ABC for understanding this vast and knotty fulmination, and explore the feverish, backstabbing and politically turbulent world in which it was created.


Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:

Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq

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Read more in the LRB:


John Mullan: Clubs of Quidnuncs

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n04/john-mullan/clubs-of-quidnuncs


Barbara Everett: Tibbles

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v07/n18/barbara-everett/tibbles


Colin Burrow: Puppeteer Poet

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n08/colin-burrow/puppeteer-poet


Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell are both fellows of All Souls College, Oxford.


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