In the last three decades, the best work on Alexander Pope has been contextual and biographical. Without relegating the understanding of Pope gained by such study, this volume seeks to point the way back from context to text - from Pope's world to a fresh exploration of his verbal artistry, and the subtle processes of his composition and revision, from manuscripts to the various stages of print. The six papers in this volume focus on topics and issues important to Pope but rarely discussed. They range from Howard Erskine-Hill's exploration of Pope's work in relation to slavery (the leading human issue of the time), to Hester Jones's subtle examination of the non-sexual relation between female and male. The book explores several quite new aspects of Pope, as well as looking afresh at features of his work which are perennially important.