Milton and the Natural World
Science and Poetry in Paradise Lost

Examines Paradise Lost's depiction of Eden in the light of contemporary scientific natural history.

Karen L. Edwards (Author)

9780521017480, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 July 2005

280 pages, 18 b/w illus.
23.4 x 15.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.4 kg

'Full of quirky detail and careful research … one does not have to agree with every reading to appreciate the importance of intelligent questioning to the future of Milton studies, and it is high praise to say that Edwards succeeds in giving us a fresh appreciation of Paradise Lost.' Margaret Kean, The Times Literary Supplement

Milton and the Natural World overturns prevailing critical assumptions by offering a fresh view of Paradise Lost, in which the representation of Eden's plants and animals is shown to be fully cognizant of the century's new, scientific natural history. The fabulous lore of the old science is wittily debunked, and the poem embraces new imaginative and symbolic possibilities for depicting the natural world, suggested by the speculations of Milton's scientific contemporaries including Robert Boyle, Thomas Browne and John Evelyn. Karen Edwards argues that Milton has represented the natural world in Paradise Lost, with its flowers and trees, insects and beasts, as a text alive with meaning and worthy of close reading.

Introduction
Part I. Re-reading the Book of the World: 1. Corrupting experience: Satan and Eve
2. Experimentalists and the book of the world
3. The place of experimental reading
Part II. Reforming Animals: 4. Milton's complicated serpents
5. New uses for monstrous lore
6. From rarities to representatives
7. Rehabilitating the political animal
Part III. Transplanting the Garden. 8. Naming and not naming
9. Botanical discretion
10. Flourishing colors
11. The balm of life
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC]