The young aspiring poet Alexander Pope crosses paths with the coquettish Arabella and man about town Lord Petre at a masquerade ball. It’s 1711, and the fashionable citizens of London are weary of recent political and social upheaval and are intent on simply pursuing enjoyment. But society in general is not accepting of any attraction that can’t restrain itself behind at least a veneer of respectability, and Arabella and Lord Petre’s intense attraction is both unacceptable and dangerous. It certainly draws Pope’s attention, and becomes the inspiration for The Rape of the Lock, the work that catapults him to fame and fortune.

Set in a fickle world where a choice word can undo a reputation and the turn of a card can make or break a fortune, this richly imagined novel by a talented new writer is a riveting portrait of an era and an exuberant, erotic tale of intrigue, betrayal, and envy.

SOPHIE GEE writes about Restoration and eighteenth-century British literature from Milton to Jane Austen. A native of Australia, she received her PhD in English from Harvard and is now an assistant professor in the Department of English at Princeton. She was named the “John E. Annan Bicentennial Preceptor,” the highest distinction that can be given to a member of the junior faculty.