The Rape of the Lock: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Rape of the Lock, credited to Alexander Pope, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope. Read by Rhonda Federman. The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 1712 in two cantos (334 lines), but then revised, expanded and reissued under Pope's name on March 2, 1714, in a much-expanded 5-canto version (794 lines). The final form was available in 1717 with the addition of Clarissa's speech on good humour. The poem satirizes a petty squabble by comparing it to the epic world of the gods. It was based on an incident recounted by Pope's friend, John Caryll. Arabella Fermor and her suitor, Lord Petre, were both from aristocratic recusant Catholic families at a period in England when under such laws as the Test Act, all denominations except Anglicanism suffered legal restrictions and penalties (for example Petre could not take up his place in the House of Lords as a Catholic). Petre, lusting after Arabella, had cut off a lock of her hair without permission, and the consequent argument had created a breach between the two families. Pope, also a Catholic, wrote the poem at the request of friends in an attempt to "comically merge the two." He utilized the character Belinda to represent Arabella and introduced an entire system of "sylphs," or guardian spirits of virgins, a parodized version of the gods and goddesses of conventional epic. (Summary by Wikipedia) M4B audio book (27mb)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Rape of the Lock
• Author credits: Alexander Pope
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 6
• Listed recording duration: 58:55

Catalogue topics

• Narrative Poem
• Parody of Epic Poetry
• Satirical Social Commentary

Track guide

1. 0 - Epistle Dedicatory — 3:59
2. 1 - Canto I — 10:16
3. 2 - Canto II — 9:45
4. 3 - Canto III — 12:12
5. 4 - Canto IV — 12:06
6. 5 - Canto V — 10:41

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.