He was an excellent hater, an accomplished liar, and hypersensitive to injuries, which he rarely forgave. But, as this masterful biography shows, he was extremely generous with both his purse and his influence and staunchly loyal to a wide and widely assorted circle of friends. Disadvantaged politically as a Roman Catholic and socially as hunchback and cripple, Pope nevertheless positioned himself at the center of the vigorous, vicious, and vastly entertaining political and literary debates of early eighteenth-century England. In such masterpieces as "The Rape of the Lock" and the "Dunciad", which Professor Mack elucidates with unfailing sensitivity, Pope succeeded in establishing himself as the inner voice of his time, speaking out against its follies, misdeeds, and self-deceptions. -- From publisher's description.