Milton: Paradise Lost

This volume offers a stimulating introduction to one of the most influential texts of western literature, Milton's Paradise Lost.

David Loewenstein (Author)

9780521539791, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 November 2003

158 pages
20.3 x 12.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.163 kg

This volume offers an accessible and stimulating introduction to one of the most influential texts of western literature. This guide highlights Milton's imaginative daring as he boldly revises the epic tradition, brilliantly elaborates upon Genesis, and shapes his ambitious narrative in order to retell the story of the Fall. The book considers the heretical dimensions of Paradise Lost and its theology, while situating Milton's great poem in its literary, religious, and political contexts. A concluding chapter addresses the influence of Milton's sublime poem as a source of creative inspiration for later writers, from the Restoration to the Romantics. Finally, the volume offers an extremely useful and updated guide to further reading, which students will find invaluable.

Chronology
The chronology of events in Paradise Lost
Part I. Paradise Lost in Milton's Career and Age: 1. 'Long choosing, and beginning late'
2. Lycidas
3. Writing in the English Revolution and the Restoration
4. Milton's blindness
5. The Christian Doctrine and Milton's theological heresies
Part II. Interpreting Paradise Lost: 6. 'Say first what cause': Paradise Lost and beginnings
7. 'To raise/That Name': Paradise Lost and epic ambition
8. The voice of the poet
9. Answerable styles
10. Satan: daring ambition and heroic ideology
11. Hell: geographical place and internal state
12. God, providence, and free will
13. Milton's Eden
14. Adam and Eve and human sexuality
15. The material cosmos of Paradise Lost
16. War in Heaven
17. Creation
18. The tragedy of the Fall
19. Postlapsarian history and the inner paradise
Part III. The Literary Afterlife of Paradise Lost: 20. Revisions from the restoration to the romantics.

Subject Areas: Anthologies [non-poetry DQ]