Synopses & Reviews
In Paradise Lost, Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and briefly in danger of executionParadise Lost has an apparent ambivalence towards authority which has led to intense debate about whether it manages to "justify the ways of God to men", or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.
Synopsis
A major new edition of Milton s selected works of prose, including his political and doctrinal writings and the famousAreopagitica
John Milton was celebrated and denounced in his own time both as a poet and as a polemicist. Today he is remembered first and foremost for his poetry, but his great epic ParadiseLost was published very late in his life, in 1667, and in his own time most readers more readily recognized Milton as a writer of prose. This superbly annotated new book is an authoritative edition of Milton s major prose works, including Of Education, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, and the Divorcetracts, as well as the famous 1644 polemical tract opposing licensing and censorship, Areopagitica.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators."
Synopsis
John Milton was celebrated and denounced in his own time both as a poet and as a polemicist. Today he is remembered first and foremost for his poetry, but his great epic Paradise Lost was published very late in his life, in 1667, and in his own time most readers more readily recognised Milton as a writer of prose. This superbly annotated new book is an authoritative edition of Milton's major prose works, including Of Education, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and the Divorce tracts, as well as the famous 1644 polemical tract on the opposing licensing and censorship, Areopagitica.
Synopsis
The Portable Milton is an authoritative grand tour through the imagination of this prodigal genius. In the course of his forty-year career, John Milton evolved from a prodigy to a blind prophet, from a philosophical aesthete to a Puritan rebel, and from a poet who proclaimed the triumph of reason to one obsessed with the intractability of sin. Throughout these transformations, he conceived his work as a form of prayer, written in the service of the supreme being.
Synopsis
An authoritative new edition of Milton's essential verse John Milton, who abandoned early plans of becoming a clergyman to become a poet, was a master of almost every type of verse-from the classical to the religious, from the lyric to the epic. His writing reflected his radical views and his profound understanding of politics and power. This collection includes such early works as the devotional "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," "Comus," and the pastoral elegy "Lycidas."
Synopsis
With the three works included in this volume--
Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, and
Lycidas--Milton placed himself next to Shakespeare, Dante, and Homer as one of the greatest literary genius in history.
About the Author
John Milton was born in London on December 9, 1608, and studied at the University of Cambridge. He originally planned to become a clergyman, but abandoned those ambitions to become a poet. Political in his writings, he served a government post during the time of the Commonwealth. In 1651, he went completely blind but he continued to write, finishing Paradise Lost in 1667, and Paradise Regained in 1671. He died in 1674.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Bibliography
Chronology
I. Early Poems, 1628-1640
Editor's Note
At a Vacation Exercise in the College (extract)
Elegy V: On the Coming of Spring
Song: On May Morning
Elegy VI: To Charles Diodati, Visiting in the Country
On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
On Shakespeare
L'Allegro
In Penseroso
Arcades
Sonnet VII: How soon hath Time
Comus
Lycidas
Lament for Damon
II. Prose Works and Sonnets, 1642-1658
Editor's Note
The Reason of Church Government Urged against Prelaty (extract)
An Apology for Smectymnuus (extract)
Of Education
Areopagitica
Second Defence of the English People (extract)
Sonnets
VIII. When the Assault Was Intended to the City
X. To the Lady Margaret Ley
XI. On the Detraction Which Followed upon My Writing Certain Treatises
XII. On the Same ("I did but prompt the age")
On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament
XIII. To Mr. H. Lawes, on His Airs
XV. On the Lord General Fairfax at the Siege of Colchester
XIX. When I consider how my light is spent
XVI. To the Lord General Cromwell
XVII. To Sir Henry Vane the Younger
XVIII. On the Late Massacre in Piemont
XX. Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son
XXI. Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench
XXII. To Mr. Cyriack Skinner upon His Blindness
XXIII. Methought I saw my late espoused saint
III. The Major Poems
Editor's Note
Paradise Lost
Paradise Regained
Samson Agonistes
Glossary of Words and Proper Names