Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus

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Alexander Pope was, at one time, the world’s most celebrated poet. His trenchant satirical works – in which the foibles of all the critics, hacks and bad poets of his day are exploded – and his masterful heroic-comic poem The Rape of the Lock continue to inspire generations of writers and readers to this day. Alongside his more prominent poetical production, Pope engaged with some of the sharpest wits of his era – including Jonathan Swift and John Gay, the author of The Beggar’s Opera – in writing a number of satirical prose works, of which Scriblerus is perhaps the greatest achievement. As he prepares to become father for the first time, the scholar Cornelius is determined to settle on nothing less than a child of the “learned sex” – a boy – and give him the most thorough education so that he can become the greatest critic who ever lived. 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. Written in collaboration with John Arbuthnot, Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Thomas Parnell and Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.