A Concise Companion to Milton

by Duran, Angelica

• ISBN13: 9780470656532
• ISBN10: 0470656530
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

With brevity, depth, and accessibility, this book helps readers to appreciate the works of John Milton, and to understand the great influence they have had on literature and other disciplines. Presents new and authoritative essays by internationally respected Milton scholars. Explains how and why Milton's works established their central place in the English literary canon. Structured chronologically around Milton's major works. Also includes a select bibliography and a chronology detailing Milton's life and works alongside relevant world events. Ideal as a first critical work on Milton.

Author Biography

Angelica Duran is Associate Professor of English and comparative Literature at Purdue University. A Milton specialist, she is on the editorial board of Milton Quarterly. She is the author of The Age of Milton and The Scientific Revolution (Duquesne UP, 2007), and is currently working on two book-length projects on Milton in relation to Spain, Latin America, and Hispanophone culture.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Surveys
A Reading of His "left hand": Milton's Prose	p. 7
"Shedding sweet influence": The Legacy of John Milton's Works	p. 25
"The world all before [us]": More than Three Hundred Years of Criticism	p. 43
Textual Sites
First and Last Fruits of Education: The Companion Poems, Epistola, and Educational Prose Works	p. 61
Milton's Heroic Sonnets	p. 78
The Lives of Lycidas	p. 95
A Mask: Tradition and Innovation	p. 111
The Bible, Religion, and Spirituality in Paradise Lost	p. 128
Gender, Sex, and Marriage in Paradise	p. 144
The Ecology of Paradise Lost	p. 161
The Messianic Vision of Paradise Regained	p. 178
The Nightmare of History: Samson Agonistes	p. 197
Reference Points
Select Chronology: "Speak of things at hand/ Useful"	p. 217
Select Bibliography: "Much arguing, much writing, many opinions"	p. 235
Index	p. 270
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