Paradise Lost

by John Milton

Overview

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 execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men', or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781545252543
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	04/09/2017
Pages:	362
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1360L (what's this?)

About the Author

John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet, best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, which first appeared in 1667, having been completely written, and dictated, while he was blind. His works continue to influence Western culture, thought and language.

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PARADISE LOST the printer to the reader
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Excerpted from "Paradise Lost"
by .
Copyright © 2003 John Milton.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Note on the Text

Paradise Lost

• Andrew Marvell, “On Paradise Lost”
• The Verse
• Book 1
• Book 2
• Book 3
• Book 4
• Book 5
• Book 6
• Book 7
• Book 8
• Book 9
• Book 10
• Book 11
• Book 12

In Context

• Reproductions of the 1674 Paradise Lost
• The Cosmography of Paradise Lost
• Illustrations of Paradise Lost
• Selections from the Bible
  • Genesis 1–3: The Creation
  • Genesis 18: Angels and God
  • Job 1: Satan
  • John 1.1–14: The Son
  • 1 Timothy 2.8–15: Eve in the New Testament
  • Revelation 12: The War in Heaven
• from Hesiod, Theogony
• John Milton’s Early Plans for Paradise Lost
• from John Milton, Areopagitica (1644)
• from John Milton, De Doctrina Christiana (c. 1658–74)
  • from The Epistle
  • from Chapter 2, Of God
  • from Chapter 5, Of the Son of God
  • from Chapter 7, Of the Creation
  • from Chapter 30, Of the Holy Scripture

Permissions Acknowledgments

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Barbara Lewalski is the doyenne of the community of Milton scholars, but she also remains committed to the enterprise of teaching. In this exemplary edition of Paradise Lost both qualities are in evidence: the text is scrupulous and the scholarship rigorous, but both the introduction and the notes are accommodated to the needs of students who will be coming to the poem for the first time. This is an edition that will please students and professors alike, and its sheer quality is a tribute to Barbara Lewalski's passion to provide readers with all the help they need to understand the greatest of all English poems."
–Gordon Campbell, University of Leicester

"Teachers and scholars will welcome Barbara Lewalski’s Blackwell edition of Paradise Lost, one not only informed by the erudition of a prominent and highly respected Miltonist but advantaged by her sound decision to reproduce the original language, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and italics of the 1674 text."
–Edward Jones, Editor, Milton Quarterly

"For the student or general reader, looking for an old-spelling edition that is faithful to the original punctuation, this edition has much to recommend it. Its annotation is crisp, purposeful and well-judged."
–Thomas N. Corns, University of Wales, Bangor

"A superb teaching text. Lewalski’s edition respects Milton’s original poem and offers supremely clear introductions, bibliography and special material to guide the student reader and educated lay person alike to new discoveries in a work that, quite simply, has it all: good, evil, God, Satan, humans, angels, love, despair, war, politics, sex, duty, and sublime poetry—set in a cosmic landscape that inspires wonder and seduces new readers in every generation."
–Sharon Achinstein, Oxford University

Editorial Reviews

Even a dozen critical essays, representative of the postmodern wave that has largely displaced liberal humanism in English studies in the years in which they were written (1970-96), do not dethrone Satan as the flawed hero of Milton's masterwork. Contributors vivisect, yet manage to convey, the contemporary relevance of the seminal 17th century epic poem with interpretations from Marxist/ historicist, feminist, psychoanalytic, and poststructuralist approaches. The editor provides a concisely informative introduction to the English Revolution and modern contexts for deconstructing . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews

In this landmark edition, teachers will discover a powerful ally in bringing the excitement of Milton’s poetry and prose to new generations of students.”—William C. Dowling, Rutgers University
 
“This magnificent edition gives us everything we need to read Milton intelligently and with fresh perception.”—William H. Pritchard, Amherst College

From the Publisher