Product Description
A comprehensive, fully annotated edition oof Milton's poetry, including his epic, Paradise Lost.

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 Latinist poet who proclaimed the triumph of reason to an epic poet obsessed with the intractability of sin. A master of almost every verse style--from the pastoral, devotional, and tenderly lyrical to the supreme grandeur of his great epic, Paradise Lost, and his biblical "Greek tragedy," Samson Agonistes---Milton left a body of work unrivaled in literary history. Although he wrote Comus and "Lycidas" shortly after leaving Cambridge University, Milton devoted much of his adult life--and even sacrificed his eyesight--to defending the cause of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. Milton's later poetry, produced after Charles II's restoration led to the defeat of the Commonwealth, contains not only personally achieved theological insights but also a deep firsthand understanding of politics and power.

This edition presents Milton's complete English, Latin, and Greek poems, modernizing spelling, capitalization, and any punctuation likely to cause confusion. Fully annotated with glosses on the poems' biblical, classical, and historical allusions, this is the best place to start for readers wanting to come to grips with this giant in English literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Great Collection
John Milton has long been recognized as the greatest poet in English after Shakespeare and a world literature treasure. Many of his short poems are perennially put among the greatest lyrics, especially "Lycidas" and his ground-breaking sonnets, which revolutionized the form and were immensely influential with sonneteers like William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley. He is of course most famous for Paradise Lost, his masterpiece; the greatest epic poem in English, it is rivaled only by Dante's Divine Comedy as the best modern epic. Paradise Regained, its mini-epic sequel, and the dramas Comus and Samson Agonistes are also among his legendary works. Besides all this, Milton's prose remains important and widely read, particularly his political work.

Many things make Milton great, not least that he is one of the few poets able to successfully combine beauty, artistry, and depth. He is usually considered the most learned English poet and was indeed among the most educated people of his day, perhaps of all time - a fearsomely well-read polyglot steeped in theology, philosophy, literature, science, and more. This has unfortunately kept many from reading him, but there is really nothing to fear; his intellect of course shows up but far more subtly than one would expect. Unlike Modernist writers with similar reputations, he is not obscure or massively allusive; nearly all his references are to the Bible and classical mythology sources that his readers would have immediately recognized. This is of course not as true now, but Milton remains remarkably readable for a poet of three hundred and fifty years' vintage - far more so, for instance, than Shakespeare.

Yet he is able to work weighty issues, particularly theology and philosophy, into his poetry in a way that only Alexander Pope, Shelley, and Thomas Hardy have been able to rival in English. Milton at his best is extremely thought-provoking but also remarkable for beauty and technical precision of a kind rarely achieved. Above all, his work is notable for a grand, epic sweep that is unmatched in English, putting him on a level with Homer, Virgil, and Dante. This is of course clearest in Paradise Lost, but even short works have it to a very high degree. Simply put, Milton's talent and stature are such that anyone even remotely interested in poetry must be familiar with his collected poems.

Anyone who loves poetry can only be dismayed at its historically low status; even the greats are read less than ever, and poetry seemingly gets only less popular. It is a testament to Milton's greatness that he has largely escaped this, continuing to be read not only by students and scholars but even remaining a popular culture presence, as numerous references in works as diverse as the film Seven and the songs of Nick Cave prove.

The Western world's ever-increasing secularism is probably the greatest obstacle to reading Milton, as nearly all his works and all the major ones deal with the Bible in some way. The passion with which he extols Christianity, particularly the dense intricacies with which he pursues an ongoing theodicy, can easily seem naïve, and it will be near-laughable to some that such a stout Christian was ever considered an intellectual giant. Even the most pious Christians may find Milton's distinct brand of Calvinism off-putting; for example, his Jesus is anything but the proto-hippie peacknik now so widely touted yet also not the fire and brimstone hurler currently favored by fundamentalists. Milton's religious thought may now be of mostly historical interest, but this should not keep anyone from reading and appreciating his great work. Whether one agrees with his views is irrelevant; his majesty and greatness transcend opinion. The vast majority of his poetry may be specifically Christian, and he makes more than a few topical references, but it is universal as only truly great art can be.

Milton's near-uniform excellence makes a collected edition of his poems essential, and there are many versions. This is one of the best both for true comprehensiveness and generous supplemental material. Indeed, the title sells the book rather short; it has not only all the English poems but also several Latin and Italian ones with translations as well as "On Education" and "Areopagitica," his most famous prose works, plus associated appendices. The prose makes up a substantial part of the book - over sixty pages out of 620 - and is a nice bonus. "On Education" details Milton's revolutionary teaching methods and remains an important contribution to a never-ending debate both for its still useful suggestions and as a peek into an era when education was very different from today. The appendix, a reminiscence from Milton's nephew and pupil, gives a more detailed look at the imposing curriculum. "Areopagitica" is Milton's legendary response to the Puritan Parliament's infamous Licensing Order authorizing book censorship. It of course has many contemporary references, but Milton's strong free speech defense is unfortunately still necessary. This is a classic treatise with many superb quotes and arguments that are still widely used and a cornerstone - indeed, a building block - of modern liberalism even if the fact that it seems strikingly conservative in some ways shows how much liberalism has changed, also making it historically valuable. The Order itself is also usefully included as an appendix.

This edition is also remarkable for secondary material. In line with other Everyman editions, it has a lengthy introduction giving an excellent overview of Milton's life and thought, the context of the poems, and some critical analysis; a Milton chronology; a bibliography; and extensive notes on the text. Unlike many Everyman editions, it also has numerous in-text notes. Milton's age and learning make notes necessary for most and invaluable for many, and these are exemplary - neither too few or too many and explanatory without forcing an interpretation. The binding is also very high quality, and we even get a built-in bookmark.

In short, this has everything general readers could ever want and will also suffice for nearly all others. The only ones who will be disappointed are the true purists and completists who want all the foreign language poems and those who want original spelling and punctuation. Anyone who has even glanced at seventeenth century texts is well aware that mechanics have changed so drastically that most readers would be lost without extensive footnotes and glosses. This avoids the problem by changing spelling to conform with current usage and altering punctuation when it is likely to confuse. Some will find this blasphemous, especially as it occasionally interferes with meter, but most will appreciate it. Anyone wanting a Milton book and unbothered by these caveats could do no better than this.

Text corrupted by modernization
It's fine, to a point, to modernize spellings of certain words, provided it doesn't alter the pronunciation (changing "Sion" to "Zion" is a no-no). However, the editors of this volume have also chosen to modernize punctuation to the point that it screws up the rhythm. For example, the contraction "th'Aonian mount" that appears in the opening of Paradise Lost becomese "the Aonian", as if modern readers wouldn't be able to figure it out on their own. This kind of meddling adds extra syllables to lines, screwing up Milton's metre and also insulting the intelligence of readers. If you want a really fine edition, shell out some extra cash for the Hughes volume.

Perfect edition ofMilton from everynan's
This everyman's edition does not seem to the edition rated below by others because this has footnotes and not endnotes./ In addition to a wondeful introduction it also contains Aereopagetica and on education which i did not expect from the title. I was pleasanly surpiused by this organzation of the book. Thise works give a good overview of the works, =. Please excuse typos i have a neurologic disease.

The greatness of Milton "They also serve who only stand and wait"
Milton's greatness is evident not only in his greatest work'Paradise Lost' but also in 'Samson Agonistes' and the finest elegy in the language , " Lycidas".It is present in his sonnets and shorter pieces also , and " On His Blindness" is one of the great poems of world - literature.
Milton is a poet of the ear, and there is a powerful music in his verse. His tremendous learning may complicate his poetry for the modern reader, but there are depths in his lines for those who truly probe them.

bad edition
I don't like the endnotes vs. footnotes which are very hard to access and deal with, and I don't like the way the apostrophes are taken out and the words are 'modernized' as it breaks up the flows and rhythms of the works. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Freedom of the press; Political Science / Political Freedom ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great piece of literature done in by a bad copy on Kindle
The Areopagitica was a work by John Milton against the licensing of publishing houses in England in 1644. Effectively, the Licensing Order of 1643 would have effectively stifled freedom of speech and expression. For that, it's an effective work of prose.

However, I found it a little long-winded at times, and filled with classical and biblical references. Most of which were interesting, but at the same time, I had wished for something a little more succinct.

When I compared this particular publishing of Areopagitica to the one included in Harvard Classics, Vol. 03: Bacon, Milton's Prose, Thomas Browne, the free version lacked any sort of footnotes or reference and was just the text itself, without any real context to Milton himself or at the time he wrote Areopagitica.

Despite this being a free e-book, I still think that you're better off getting the Harvard Classics, Volume 3 for the footnotes and introduction. ... Read more

Product Description
John Milton is, next to William Shakespeare, the most influential English poet, a writer whose work spans an incredible breadth of forms and subject matter. The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton celebrates this author’s genius in a thoughtfully assembled book that provides new modern-spelling versions of Milton’s texts, expert commentary, and a wealth of other features that will please even the most dedicated students of Milton’s canon. Edited by a trio of esteemed scholars, this volume is the definitive Milton for our time.

In these pages you will find all of Milton’s verse, from masterpieces such as Paradise Lost–widely viewed as the finest epic poem in the English language–to shorter works such as the Nativity Ode, Lycidas,, A Masque and Samson Agonistes. Milton’s non-English language sonnets, verses, and elegies are accompanied by fresh translations by Gordon Braden. Among the newly edited and authoritatively annotated prose selections are letters, pamphlets, political tracts, essays such as Of Education and Areopagitica, and a generous portion of his heretical Christian Doctrine. These works reveal Milton’s passionate advocacy of controversial positions during the English Civil War and the Commonwealth and Restoration periods.

With his deep learning and the sensual immediacy of his language, Milton creates for us a unique bridge to the cultures of classical antiquity and medieval and Renaissance Christianity. With this in mind, the editors give careful attention to preserving the vibrant energy of Milton’s verse and prose, while making the relatively unfamiliar aspects of his writing accessible to modern readers. Notes identify the old meanings and roots of English words, illuminate historical contexts–including classical and biblical allusions–and offer concise accounts of the author’s philosophical and political assumptions. This edition is a consummate work of modern literary scholarship.

Praise
“Over the coming months, [John Milton’s] 400th anniversary will be celebrated in many different ways, but it is highly unlikely that any of the tributes he receives will do as much for him as the appearance of the Modern Library edition of his collected poetry and selected prose. The edition is a model of its kind, well designed and attractively produced. There are scholarly but unintimidating footnotes and helpful introductions to the major works. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized -- a difficult decision but the right one….A great deal has been packed in, but Milton has still been left room to breathe. The whole enterprise is meant to be reader-friendly, and it succeeds.” — The Wall Street Journal

“This magnificent edition gives us everything we need to read Milton intelligently and with fresh perception. You could take it to a desert island, or just stay home and further your education in a great writer.”
–William H. Pritchard, Amherst College

“For generations of readers Milton has been the measure of both eloquence and nobility of mind. For the next generation this new Modern Library volume will be the standard: it is meticulously edited, full of tactful annotations that set the stage for his work and his times, and it brings Milton, as a poet and a thinker, vividly alive before us.”
–Robert Hass

“Years ago I began a series of poems about Milton and his daughters. Ever since, I have been combing through Milton’s poems and prose for those moments when the poet would turn and speak to the poet in me. It is in the new Kerrigan-Rumrich-Fallon edition that I now find prompt rejoinders to questions, ready clarifications of problems, and a more intimate dimension of that formidable adjective Miltonic.”
–Richard Howard

“A superb edition of the great poet, with modernized spelling, lucid introductions to each work, illuminating footnotes, and fresh prose translations of poems in Latin, Greek, and Italian. This will surely be the edition of choice for teachers, students, and general readers too.”
–Leo Damrosch, Harvard University

“The introductions alone constitute a fine new book on Milton, beautifully written, challenging and balanced, with equal care and insight given to textual, biographical, historical, literary-historical and literary-critical concerns. It is a book to last a lifetime.”
–James Earl, University of Oregon

“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. In the clarity of its overall conception, its thoroughness, and its never-faltering attention to literary and historical detail, the Modern Library Milton serves almost as another teacher–patient, thoughtful, endlessly concerned with genuine comprehension.”
–William C. Dowling, Rutgers University

“The editors display a remarkable combination of scholarly rigor and sensitivity to literary values, expressed in prose of exemplary clarity and extraordinary grace; even the notes, concise as well as precise, approach a kind of epigrammatic brilliance. A superb edition.”
–Edward W. Tayler, Columbia University

“The editors succeed gloriously, meeting the needs of the whole spectrum, from general readers to advanced students. A modernized text, one sensitive to Milton’ s poetic rhythm, illuminates both the author’s meaning and artistry. It’s a beautiful edition–a home worthy of its subject.”
–Marina Favila, James Madison University ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

This is the one
This is it, finally, a worthy successor to the Merritt Hughes edition of Milton. Excellent footnotes and introductions, a great selection of prose. This is all the Milton that most of us will ever need. A nicely bound solid volume. A desert island book if ever there were one. The pages are thick enough (not like the Norton Anthologies, for example, which has pages so thin you can see right through them). At a quite reasonable price too.

Brilliantly succeeds in its aims, shaming the Riverside Milton
Somewhere in the illegibly tiny notes to the Riverside Milton are some valuable bibliographic citations and other good information.So if you are a Milton scholar I'm afraid you can't make any excuse to avoid consulting that poorly designed doorstop.Also, if you need original spelling, Riverside is a convenient place to check.

If you are anything other than a Milton scholar who needs to check all the commentaries & annotations of all the editors -- if you are one of the rare persisting "general readers" curious to read everything -- then this Modern Library edition, "The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton," is a much more usable and friendly answer to your needs than the Riverside.

ML's bigger and better font & less stark paper color make a real difference if you plan on reading literature as opposed to making use of a reference book.Both volumes offer extensive selections from Milton's prose; Riverside's best advantage is including Milton's "Treatise of Civil Power" (1659).(Riverside also has all the prolusions; ML just nos. 1 & 7.On the whole, the representation of Milton's prose oeuvre is a wash.)ML's best advantage in the prose, and it is a weighty one, is its treatment of the crucial "Christian Doctrine."Riverside's CD looks more complete than it is, because it widely (and inconsistently) fails to note where omissions have been made.Riverside omits passages of crucial interest to the reader of Paradise Lost.ML gives a very complete and thoughtful selection from CD (lightened by removing most series of proof texts), but its greatest advantage here is providing plentiful & good footnotes, including many references to Paradise Lost.Shockingly, and unconscionably, Riverside provides NO annotation to Christian Doctrine.In my mind, this clearly betrays an assumption that you, the reader, are not actually interested in reading this important work.Flannagan hollowly claims that the (overrated) authorship dispute has "forced" him to print the text without footnotes.(I suspect the fact that Merritt Hughes did not annotate CD--one of the few blemishes in that great edition--also has something to do with the omission.)All you have to do is browse through ML's excellent footnotes & selections to realize how much you're missing here.

Riverside's failure to cross-reference is a more general problem.For example, if you read Paradise Lost in the Riverside, when the footnotes refer you to "Areopagitica" or "The Reason of Church Government," you are only given page numbers in the Yale edition--even though the relevant passages are right there in the Riverside!In comparison, ML always provides its own page numbers, so that you can go read that passage from Areopagitica now, without a trip to the library.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I will not lie and deny that Flannagan's notes often go beyond what is available in ML.But it's hardly as if ML's scholarly notes are a subset of the good information in Riverside--ML has excellent notes on sources and allusions, so there are great references to Aristotle & Anselm, the Iliad, and so forth, that are not also found in Riverside.Sometimes Riverside's notes just try too hard, as when we get three verbose lines defining Aristotle's notion of form, with no attempt whatsoever to apply its meaning to the poem before us.ML is certainly better on glossing the difficulties of Milton's English, and in general ML tends to provide little nuggets of literary appreciation in its critical notes, rather than to try to sum up a status quaestionis.

Finally, a pet peeve: the Riverside misprints ghastly wrong Greek in places where ML has been more careful.

Milton over Time
The obligatory remark encompassing modern appreciation for Milton was given to us from T.S. Eliot, who believed that, "of no other poet is it so difficult to consider the poetry simply as poetry, without our theological and political dispositions... making unlawful entry."It is impossible to surmise and internalize Milton's poetry without also having to take in the historical aura of the radical man - the Milton of Parliamentary holy war and old-timey religious conservatism.His dour presence floats down to us through filtered history and infuses his poetical works with our new, never-ending quest to search for the motivation of the artist through his or her art.It is this unfair, skewed lens through which we seek the man through the work that we distort "Lycidas" into a declaration of war against the Anglican priesthood rather than a young poet's fearful hope of obtaining Fame before he, too, dies.This skewed lens that views "Comus" as solely a piece of political resurgence of a disgraced Earl's family rather than a confident poet's first attempt to fuse epic aesthetics with austere Christian doctrine.And this skewed lens that lessens the infinite importance of "Paradise Lost," its indelible impact on all major writers in English since, to a longish document of literary curio of occasional allegorical significance.

There is a great deal of time, politicking, and structure to overcome when reading Milton, whether just being introduced to his work or continually engaged with it.These troubles in reading him seep through most of his poems and prose.And even without the myth of the poet clouding his meaning, he was a terribly learned writer, and his work can be difficult to approach for even the casual scholar.

Which is why this edition of Milton's poetry and prose possesses a magisterial significance over all other currently and formerly published editions.William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, and Stephen M. Fallon have done a remarkable job of assuaging the gaps between wizened Milton and a contemporary readership.As stated in this edition's general preface, the aim of this publication was to make his "poetry and prose...almost entirely modernized."The numerous footnotes (thank God, an edition that sagaciously gives us the explanations on the same page as the text, rather than the obsolescent Oxford World Editions than continue to insist on annoying, certainly close to psychically debilitating when reading, endnotes hidden in the last coarse pages of the book) flesh out the world and the mind of Milton for the interested reader, lessening the mental interruptions caused by frequent Google searches for this ancient God, or that historical figure, or that poetical allusion, which editions with fewer, less thorough, or even no footnotes require as supplement to make Milton tenable.

This is a comprehensive publication, the likes of which I wish were made more often.It is a shame, hurtful to our overall cultural integrity, that we generally look on Milton as a religious wacko, or his work as a quagmire of venous allusions, because his poetry his so achingly beautiful, his philosophical observations still probing and important to our time, his love to reunite the past literary traditions with the current so drastically needed by our disenfranchised society hammering itself slowly to pieces in search of something dear to hold on to and unite our affairs.Like the thousand pieces of Osiris' scattered body that Milton offers us in "Areopagitica" as an allegory to fractured Truth, we too can find meaning in Milton's embattled name and work in the difficult, pluralistic today.

In Naked Majesty
You can get the Complete Poems in a dozen different editions, so the heart of a new collection like this is in the notes. I hoped the editors would gift us with a new Milton, find some way to shake up the stereotype, but alas, their poet's the government-issue Great Man swaddled in lightning and footnotes.

Kerrigan, Rumrich, Braden and Fallon--all senior Miltonists, all men--don't feel much need to justify the grand tone and theological speculations of the `Miltonic' to our more secular, less Baroque age. We also don't get a real peek into the controversies and battle lines of modern-day Milton studies. The result's a handsome, helpful, kind of innocuous edition of an indisputably great poet; great in a way that makes you wonder how much work greatness, as Milton and his editors here conceive it, really does for us anymore.

By far the best edition for the undergrad
As far as "Paradise Lost" is concerned, this book has superb annotation that is not as overbearing (though useful) as the edition by Fowler; notes are clear and concise, with verse cross-refrences and citation of many commentators. As an undergrad, I can greatly appreciate such reader friendly texts that elucidate obscure or outdated words and phrases, affording a lot more time to enjoy Milton otherwise spent in a dictionary. It also has a great introduction to PL, as well as selected illustrations.

... Read more

Product Description
Previously published in the Oxford Authors series, this unique one-volume selection of Milton's poetry and prose includes all the English and Italian verse and a generous selection of his major prose works. Modernized spelling, extensive notes, and a helpful introduction make the text immediately accessible to the modern reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

For Grad School
I needed this book for a graduate class on Milton this semester. The bookstore ran out and I needed a good copy in a hurry. The book was brand new as advertised, was a great price, and the shipping was even better! I got it in 3 days...just in time to complete the assignment!

John Milton
I am taking a Milton class at college, and there was a mix up at their book store with the Milton book. Some students ordered the correct book for the class through Amazon.com, but I bought this one to use and it's great. It has all the poems and prose that are going to be studied this semester. The teacher passed out a copy of a poem that Milton wrote that was not in her book or in the other students' who bought the correct book, but it was in this one that I bought. It's great.

Nice, but could be better
The Oxford version of Milton's works is fairly comprehensive, and for that, it is appreciated.For those with an understanding of Latin, Oxford's choice to have the Latin opposite the English translation for several of Milton's poems is surely appreciated.However, notes on individual items within a work have endnotes, and while it is nice just to have notes on the works at all, having those notes on the page itself would be much more useful than having to hold a page open in the back of the book while reading a sonnet in the front of it.The Works include Paradise Lost/Regained, as well as Samson Agonistes, besides various poetry and even portions of Milton's pamphlets regarding his sociopolitical thoughts.Overall, not a bad set of works, but the design/layout could have been improved.

Read his work for pleasure; reading it will make you think
Of English writers, John Milton is justly considered to be a close second to Shakespeare. This volume provides good illustration. He is not the easiest writer to read but the editor's notes help (as well as an understanding of mythology, English history, and the Bible). Milton excels in poetry, yet his prose remains powerful (Aeropagitica and Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Commonwealth in particular). Some of his works are rather tough to get through especially if you disagree with his point of view (I found this to be so with Doctine and Discipline of Divorce) or if you are unfamiliar with the time period he was writing in (Tenure of Kings and Magistrates). In his writing you will see his brilliance shine through in his ideas, arguements, and phrasing. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are written with such conviction that you could think that that is how those events had to have happened.

Church, or Muse . . .Doctrine, or Verse ...
[John Milton, son of a scrivener and musician...]
This review is of the Oxford World's Classics edition of
-John Milton: The Major Works- (ISBN: 019280409X),
edited and with an Introduction by Stephen Orgel and
Jonathan Goldberg.
"That kings for such a tomb would wish to die" (John
Milton-- "On Shakespeare") -- "one of the greatest,
most noble, and most sublime poems which either this
age or nation has produced" (John Dryden -- on -Paradise
Lost-). The picture drawn of Milton, his life, and his
career (or careers) by Orgel and Goldberg is of a
man of intelligence and means who had been educated
for the life of a gentleman and a scholar in his
early life, yet finding that the surge of events
and ideologies has a way of changing one's timing,
course of expression, and even personal fate. Thus
Milton makes conflicting statements about his intents,
his "ripeness" (maturity of intellect and wisdom, more
than age), and which venue is his real chosen arena
of expression.
His first published poem, is anonymous, and is
"On Shakespeare" included in "the dedicatory verses
to the second Shakespeare folio[1632]." (Chronology.) Yet
in his first signed publication, -The Reason for Church
Government- (1642), a prose tract, "Milton presents himself ...
as a poet who uses only his 'left hand'
in writing prose. In the account he gives, his entire
life appears to have been spent in training as a poet." (Introduction.)
As the eldest son, however, he "had been from childhood
'destined'...to a Church career." (Introduction.)But
events intrude, as well as yearnings, and the 2 Jan. 1646
publication of -Poems of Mr. John MIlton, Both English
and Latin-, dated 1645. The Church career never materializes,
but in a strange way, a more interesting "preaching" or
"exhorting" or "inspirational" one does, through his
poetry, rather than his political tracts. And Milton,
perhaps even oblivious to his own constantly self-
revisionist attitudes and stances, creates a more
enduring legacy which has influenced literature,
scholarship, views about justifying "the ways of
God to man" (from -Paradise Lost-), and the common
cultural views about Satan, and Hell, and the Fall,
even more so than those of Dante.
This is an excellent edition which contains the
shorter English poems, the Latin poems (with both
Latin text on left pages -- and the Enlish translations
on the right pages), Selections from -A Book of
Sylvae-, Greek poem added 1673, Carmina Elegiaca,
the Prose Works: from -The Reason of Church Government-,
from -An Apology for Smectymnuus-, -The Doctrine and
Discipline of Divorce (Complete), -Of Education-
(Complete), -Areopagitica- (Complete), -The Tenure
of Kings and Magistrates- (Complete), from -The
Second Defence of the English People, -The Ready and
Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth- (Complete).
Of course, there is also -Paradise Lost- (Complete);
-Paradise Regained- (Complete); and -Samson Agonistes-
(Complete).Highly enlightening are 3 Familiar Letters
of 1674: "To Charles Diodati, 1637"; "To Benedetto
Buonmattei, 1638"; and "To Leonard Philaras, Athenian."
There is a lengthy excerpt from -Christian Doctrine-
which starts out talking of "restoring religion to
something of its pure original state" and has the
very interesting (telling) perspective on Milton's
own "cross": "If I were to say that I had focused
my studies principally upon Christian doctrine because
nothing else can so effectually wipe away those two
repulsive affictions,tyranny and superstition [of
course, no idea that doctrine itself might promote
those two evils -- R.K.], from human life and the
human mind, I should show that I had been concerned
not for religion but for life's well-being." And
the glory of Oxford editions, there are copious
notes in the back going from page 735 to page 959,
Further Reading List, and Index of Titles and First
Lines.At this price, this volume is a real steal
(er, get thee behind me, Satan...) ... bargain!
-- Robert Kilgore. ... Read more

Product Description
Paradise Lost is the great epic poem of the English language, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle ranges across heaven, hell, and earth, as Satan and his band of rebel angels conspire against God.At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, motivated by all too human temptations, but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love. This marvelous new edition boasts an introduction by one of Milton's most famous modern admirers, the best-selling novelist Philip Pullman. Indeed, Pullman not only provides a general introduction, but also introduces each of the twelve books of the poem.In these commentaries, Pullman illuminates the power of the poem and its achievement as a story, suggests how we should read it today, and describes its influence on him and his acclaimed trilogy His Dark Materials, which takes its title from a line in the poem. His observations offer a tribute that is both personal and insightful, and his enthusiasm for Milton's language, skill, and supreme gifts as a storyteller is infectious. He encourages readers above all to experience the poem for themselves, and surrender to its enchantment.Pullman's tremendous admiration and passion for Paradise Lost will attract a whole new generation of readers to this classic of English literature. An ideal gift, the book is beautifully produced, printed in two colors throughout, illustrated with the twelve engravings from the first illustrated edition published in 1688, with ribbon marker. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Kindle Oxford Milton has no notes, 12 Dore illustrations
The Kindle Oxford Milton PARADISE LOST has no notes, and the Afterword explains that this was deliberate but that notes are nice to have, and you can get them in other places.

Meanwhile, if you don't want to pay extra for Philip Pullman's excellent introduction and sparse personal comments before each book, as well as 12 Dore illustrations which normal Kindles won't make much of -- then you might prefer to pick up an ebook freebie from Gutenberg or Amazon itself.

Sorry to have to be so specific about what edition I'm reviewing, but as you can see all the PARADISE LOSTs get jumbled together in the review sections.

Wow, Pullman!?
I'm sure Milton would be furious if he read the intro. to this book.It's classic how Pullman pulls Paradise Lost into portraying his own view points of the world.I should have guessed.Don't buy it, Pullman has apparently no idea of Milton's history, and has misread the book.

Classic beauty
I reluctantly studied this at university but once I started reading I could see how wonderfully rich the text was. There was so much to it. Milton took a section from Genesis where there was little description and he gave great thought to it. Perfection was not a simple issue, and paradise was not a simple place. Milton, in some ways, "filled in" what wasn't mentioned in Genesis. Perfection and paradise are complex ideas that we probably can't completely comprehend (since we're all imperfect).
And then the all time issue of Satan vs God... I thought Milton did a great job of representing this.

All in all, I highly recommend this great epic.

Not what I expected.
The audio version of Paradise Lost is good.I was expecting more of a dramatisation rather than just a reading of the text, but that's just my misunderstanding.

A magnificent edition of a magnificent poem!
I have to begin with a confession: as a young English major, I hated Milton.At the time, I justified my distaste by assuring myself that none of the stuff in "Paradise Lost" was TRUE.

Time passed, as it does, and now I discover that in my golden years I have a whole treasure-house of unread poetry!I still think that "Paradise Lost" is fiction, but by now I am wise enough to treat the whole thing as world-historical myth, and superb writing to boot!

As everyone else has noticed, this particular edition from Oxford World's Classics is a triumph of the book-maker's art.The type is beautifully set, the illustrations are terrific, and the book is strongly bound.

I hear rumors (once again) that "books are going to become extinct."I'm not sure I believe them any more now than I did 30 years ago, but I'm pretty sure that books like this will NEVER become extinct -- any more than paintings were driven out by photography.I may be doing 70-80% of my reading on a Kindle in the future, and my "paper library" may become more select, but I don't think personal libraries are ever going to vanish.Let's wait & see!

In the meantime, buy this book.Period. ... Read more

Product Description
Paradise Regained is a poem by the 17th century English poet John Milton,which deals with the subject of the Temptation of Christ.One of the major concepts emphasized throughout Paradise Regained is the play on reversals. As implied by its title, Milton sets out to reverse the "loss" of Paradise. Thus, antonyms are often found next to each other throughout the poem, reinforcing the idea that everything that was lost in the first epic is going to be regained by the end of the mini-epic.Additionally, this work focuses on the idea of "hunger", both in a literal and in a spiritual sense. After wandering in the wilderness for forty days Jesus is starved of both food and the Word of God. Satan, too blind to see any non-literal meanings of the term, offers Christ food and various other temptations, but Jesus continually denies him. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

The Kindle version is horrible
The Kindle version is horrible. I mean, Milton's Paradise Regained is supposed to be an amazing work of literature and not formatted poorly. It's supposed to be a poem, which means there's supposed to be line breaks. Instead, this version is more of a run-on sentence. There's also no footnotes, which would probably make this useless for anything academic related.

If you're looking for Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained for the Kindle, spend a dollar and get Harvard Classics, Vol. 04: The Complete Poems of John Milton Written in English instead.

Not for Kindle
The work itself is of course brilliant- the Kindle edition is abominable. I selected this edition above other Kindle editions for the footnotes. Not only are the footnotes not included in the Kindle edition, there is also not a table of contents. As I am in the midst of book IV in my paper copy and was purchasing the Kindle edition as backup while traveling, this is unfortunate. I do not care to leaf through over 100 pages looking for my place. Poor form, Amazon, poor form.

Excellent choice
I really chose a good book to read for my english class. What is more awesome is that this book came really fast. And in excellent condition!

Nicely done
Very easy to read printing of Paradise Regained, in contrast to everything else I've seen.

Hard to read
Well, I am not a native english speaker, but even for an english native speaker, it's a very hard reading, due the poetry, metric and ancient words... it is a classic, beauty story, but it's better if you undertand the whole text, I cannot... ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Paradise Lost has long been hailed as one of the most compelling stories of all time. Its cosmic canvas--heaven, hell, chaos, and the Garden of Eden--has enthralled thousands of readers for more than three centuries. For others, however, it has remained an unopened treasure because of the perceived difficulty of its archaic vocabulary and poetic structure.Dennis Danielson's new edition of Milton's great epic offers a vibrant, authoritative rendition in modern prose alongside the original text of Milton's story of heroism, pathos, beauty, and grace, making accessible for the first time a work that continues to be acclaimed as "possibly the most profound meditation on good and evil ever written" (Toronto Globe & Mail, 2000). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Don't waste your money
You're better off with John Milton's Paradise Lost In Plain English: A Simple, Line By Line Paraphrase Of The Complicated Masterpiece. (The title says it all.) Example: Wonder why there's no "Look Inside" feature here? If there was, on the first page you'd see how Parallel Prose translates Milton's reference to "the Shepherd on Oreb or Sinai" into "the shepherd on Horab or Sinai." Big help, huh? The Plain English version (which does allow a Look Inside) translates it as: "Moses" (in plain English). Paradise Lost is crammed with these kinds of perplexing allusions to people, places and events from the Bible, history, mythology and classical literature. You do the math.

IMPOSSIBLE
Danielson's meticulous translation may be a godsend for struggling students. Yet the work is touted not so much as a cheat sheet, but as a pleasing alternative for admirers of the difficult poem. Those who are seeking pleasure reading, however, may be disappointed. Danielson is clearly a good writer and handles the archaic style well, but in attempting two things simultaneously--both an accurate translation and a pleasing narrative--he takes on an impossible task. Constrained by the "parallel" adhesion to every line, any real creativity is prohibited. Milton's poetry makes traversing his convoluted maze worth the effort. But stripped of the poetry, the narrative bogs down under its own weight. Which is probably why I find the 1994 prose adaptation by Joseph Lanzara: Paradise Lost: The Novel, which takes extraordinary liberties with the original, a more satisfying literary experience than Danielson's restrictive version.

Stanley Fish Reviews This Book
I am going to buy this book. Stanley Fish, a university literature professor who writes the "Think Again" blog for the New York Times, reviewed this book on 2008 November 30. The title of his blog column is "'Paradise Lost' in Prose." Just go to the New York Times website and search for the column (I can't include the URL here).

Fish fairly and lucidly explains the reasons for writing a translation of "Paradise Lost" in English, and he favors having the original poem side-by-side with the prose translation. He explains that the translator, Dennis Danielson, has to repeatedly make choices between ambiguous and multiple meanings of words, which unavoidably loses much of the poem's power and the poet's intent, but having the original text in parallel view mitigates this problem. Fish concludes that the prose translation is just the thing for readers who don't have the time or energy to read "Paradise Lost" with full appreciation, which by the way is quite a task. ... Read more

Product Description
The first complete annotated edition of Milton's poetry available in a one-volume paperback. The text is established from original sources, with collations of all known manuscripts, chronology and verbal variants recorded. Works in Latin, Greek and Italian are included with new literal translations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

An affordable, quality collection of Milton's work.
From a very young age, John Milton declared to friends and family that his ambition was to become the greatest English poet who ever lived (Christian modesty not being particularly high among his qualities), and a great many people are of the opinion that he succeeded; with this collection, modern readers have the chance to determine for themselves whether or not he managed it.Certainly, from my perspective, he reached the upper echelons, an area occupied also by the likes of Shakespeare (to whom Milton writes a poem), Tennyson, and Browning.

The book first covers Milton's large body of individual poems (running from a couple of lines to a couple of pages each), many of which were originally written in Latin, in which case both the untranslated and translated versions are included.There is a wide range of subjects covered, including many on religious matters, to dedications to friends or icons (such as the aforementioned Shakespeare), to sonnets.The poems are collected in three groups, chronologically: the years of his formal education, the years of his private life, and the years of his public career.

The real prizes, however, come after this:Milton's three major long works:"Paradise Lost", "Paradise Regained", and "Samson Agonistes".The first of these, obviously, is his magnum opus, often considered the greatest single poetic work ever written (which was Milton's ambition when writing it), detailing the story of the Fall of Man and Satan's rebellion against God.Done in the style of an epic (since, to be the greatest poet, one must write an epic, in the thinking of Milton's era), it is a classic."Paradise Regained" is a (much shorter) follow-up that documents Christ's temptation by Satan; for all that "Paradise Lost" is a superior Milton, "Regained" is much more successful in communicating Milton's theology (no one reading it would theorize Milton is unknowingly sympathetic to the Devil).Finally, "Samson Agonistes", another Scripture-based work, is modelled not on the epic, but on the structure of a Greek tragedy, including a Chorus and the major action taking place off-screen, given to the audience via description."Samson" dramatizes the final day of Samson's life, before his great feat of pulling down the Philistine temple, and sees Milton further examine themes relating to destiny and the proper way to carry out God's will.

Unlike many collections, the language of this collection has not been modernized, so all the original spelling is in tact.The footnoting is comprehensive, although occasionally the practice of merely citing the Scriptural passages Milton refers to without further illumination becomes wearisome.

If you are looking for a good collection of Milton's poetry, look no further than this book.

Great scholarly work, not for beginners
This is a superbly affordable one volume scholarly edition of John Milton's poetical works. As some of the reviewers have already pointed out, its great virtue lies in the preservation of the original spelling as Milton wrote. That aside, it also contains Milton's minor poems in Latin, Italian and Greek in the original with English translations. The endnotes contain detailed technical matters such as dating, editions and other textual miscellany. The footnotes serve as reference to the poetry itself, clarifying uncommon words, classical allusions, etc.

Lastly, I must qualify that this book is not meant for the beginner trying to appreciate Milton's poetic genius. It doesn't pretend to be. Many other fine editions exist for that purpose, but for the one volume scholarly edition of Milton's complete poetical works, Professor Shawcross's work is of the highest calibre.

The Real Milton, Unmodernized
This edition is the best simply because it's the only one I've found that actually prints the texts as written, without modernizing the language or spelling. You get to read Milton as Milton wrote, not as he has been edited and modernized.

(Just as an example, you get to read "mortal tast" in line 2 of Paradise Lost, instead of "mortal taste")

If only they would come out with a Complete Shakespeare in the original text, without the modernization.

It is not for nothing Blake called him the Divine Milton
Milton is justly acclaimed as one of the greatest of all poets in the English language.His work has inspired many great artists in poetry, literature, religious exegesis, painting, sculpture, music, and drama.There is a reason William Blake, himself a great poet, called him the Divine Milton.

This great volume brings together all of Milton's poetry at a very affordable price.It is a volume you will want to have on your shelf and spend many hours reading and re-reading.You will find his language easy to read, but to pull the meaning out of the words will require close attention.There are many great works in this volume, but half of the volume consists of three major works: "Paradise Lost" (a favorite for so many for the past three centuries), "Paradise Regained", and "Samson Agonistes".People were most passionate about these poems when religion was more a part of daily life and was present in all aspects of our culture.Even today, critics as sophisticated as Harold Bloom find the Satan of "Paradise Lost" one of the great literary achievements of all time.

Reading these fabulous stories as poems energizes the appetite for more epic poetry.That is a great additional reward after receiving the gift of Milton's powerful images and beautiful language.

great book, great price
I recently sat in on a faculty seminar, where we're talking Paradise Lost and what to do with it in a humanities class, and was a bit surprised to find professors from all over the humanities department--a medieval prof, one who specializes in gender studies and 20th century lit, a classicist--who all still liked and read Milton, when I always thought I was a freak for really digging him. And they didn't just read him cause he's part of the canon, no, they truly enjoyed reading his poetry.

Anyway, there were lots of different editions laying around on the table, and I brought my brand new Riverside Milton, edited by Roy Flannagan, which, for all intents and purposes, is a wonderful book, but very expensive, and very, well, heavy. And I miss my old Shawcross, that I must have loaned to someone--with five years' worth of notes in there. I don't think you can beat good old Shawcroww--all of Milton's English poetry, in a good edition, with good apparatus, for under 15 bucks. Any reader, teacher, student of Milton: I highly recommend this edition, and guarantee you you will probably never need another. ... Read more

Product Description
Affordable, compact, and authoritative, this one-volume edition of The Annotated Milton encompasses the monumental sweep of John Milton’s poetry. Here are Milton’ s early works, including his first great poem, “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” the light and lyrical “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” the masque Comus, and the lushly beautiful pastoral elegy “Lycidas.” Here, too, included in their entirety, are the three epic poems considered to be among the finest works in the English language: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.

Fully annotated by Burton Raffel, this distinguished edition clarifies the complex allusions of Milton’s verse and references the personal, religious, historical, and mythical influences that inspired the great blind poet of England, who ranks among the undisputed giants of world literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good "mid-sized" version of "Milton's Works."
I recognize that Milton is second to Shakespeare in linguistic craft and mastery, and, wanting to round our my literary experience, I searched for month to find a lovely, hardbound, guilt-edged "Complete Works of Milton" to match my lovely, hardbound, guilt-edged "Complete Works of Shakespeare."But to no avail!

I almost bought a paperback "Complete Works of Milton," which had Milton's Greek, Latin, and Italian poems.It surprised me that this man was a genius in many languages, but since I only speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French, I demurred.

I finally settled on this edition since it does the job that an English student or aficionado would want.It contains the complete English sonnets, his English plays, and the supernal-issimo twins "Paradise Lost," and "Paradise Regained."In addition to the polyglot works, this book omits his prose works.But that is for another time and another day!

The "helps" are great.Every line in Epic Paradise plays is numbered, which prevents any miscounting errors.Moreover, it has many helpful footnotes, which highlight many of Milton's word plays and puns.In this dimension, Milton is one of the funniest classicists in the universe.

I enjoy Milton.His wordplay and "force of langue" outstrips Shakespeare in many instances.I also enjoy his obvious Christianity, which is what makes Lucifer is such a charming character.You only counterfeit a true coin!

Extremely Helpful!
I had to read Paradise Lost for my English class, and I bought this, honestly, so I wouldn't have to buy a Cliffs Notes separately. The annotations are really helpful, and explain a lot of things. Don't be intimidated by the size of the book; it's just the notes. If it's yourfirst time reading Milton, get this. If not, you may be annoyed by thenotes; I was after a little while, once I got the gist of the story. I giveit 4 stars because it's helpful, but you either love or hate Milton, and Ihate it. But the notes (I can't say this enough) make the reading so mucheasier! ... Read more

Product Description
“Meticulously edited, full of tactful annotations that set the stage for his work and his times, this edition brings Milton, as a poet and a thinker, vividly alive before us.”
–Robert Hass, winner of the National Book Award

John Milton’s Paradise Lost, an epic poem on the clash between God and his fallen angel, Satan, is a profound meditation on fate, free will, and divinity, and one of the most beautiful works in world literature. Extracted from the Modern Library’s highly acclaimed The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton, this edition reflects up-to-date scholarship and includes a substantial Introduction, fresh commentary, and other features–annotations on Milton’s classical allusions, a chronology of the writer’s life, clean page layouts, and an index–that make it the definitive twenty-first-century presentation of John Milton’s timeless signature work.

Praise for The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton

“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 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Classic
This book has withstood time and criticism to emerge as a classic work of literature.This edition's beautiful cover enhances the art within, and the many footnotes help provide clarity and context.

An excellently annotated version
When John Milton set out to write Paradise Lost, he had every intention of writing a masterpiece of the English language.He felt he was destined for greatness, and his creation does not disappoint.With over 9000 lines of some of the greatest poetry every written, Milton does an incredible job of using classical and biblical allusions within a classical format to create a surprisingly modern and incredibly poignant look at the nature of God and man.Add on to this the fact that he was blind when he composed it, and you cannot call PL anything less than a work of genius.

What separates this version from all the others available?The incredibly detailed work of the editors.The annotations of this edition are absolutely fantastic.They are plentiful (sometimes taking up as much as half a page), extremely informative, and surprisingly fun to read.Most annotated works such as this merely clarify antiquated vocabulary, but in this case the editors point out classical allusions, references to current events, and references to Milton's prose works.In addition to the prose and poetry associated with the text, the editors routinely mention the critical discourse (of which there is an unholy amount) associated with Milton.There are even moments where I laughed out loud at their comments. There is also a subtle touch to the annotations, in that there is no indication of annotations within the line.What I mean by this is that there are no bubbles or footnote marks in the body of the poem.The annotations at the bottom of the page simply point to a line number.This allows the reader to ignore the annotations if they choose to do so.
Another nice characteristic of this edition is the artwork and illustrations included.There's some really fantastic stuff in there.

All in all, this is an excellent edition of an excellent poem.

Classic
Read this book in high school. It was a hard read then decided to try again 30 years later. Still a hard read lol ... Read more

Product Description
Paradise Lost, an epic poem in blank verse, written by the 17th-century poet John Milton as he became blind at the end of his life, is a retelling of the Biblical story of the Fall of Man. While based on the Christian tale, the poem incorporates many topics, and spends most of its verses detailing the journey of Satan and his war on the angels. The depiction of Adam and Eve draws an elaborate panorama of their trials. This classic of Western literature is wide-reaching and enormously influential, and should not be absent from the modern reader's bookshelf. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

Epic poetry at its finest
Many people I know, (including myself), have a dismal view of poetry, especially epic poems. Those who have had to plod our way through the excruciating Middle English of the Canterbury Tales, the old English of Beowulf, or the now obscure references of the Roman propagandist's Aeneid are rightfully wary of yet another long tale set to verse.

However, I implore the fence sitter to put aside their prejudices and read this book. Unlike all the other famous epic poems, John Milton writes in modern English. Not only that, his writing is absolutely beautiful and enthralling, even for a modern reader. In addition, unlike other epic poems that may have turned off the reader to this art form, John Milton's subject material is approachable and understandable to the modern reader without having to read other books or notes to inform as to the plot of the story. Why is this so? The Aeneid, the Odyssey, and Dante's inferno were written for different times and audiences. The normal reader cannot approach the first two without substantial background reading in Greek and Roman history (and religion). The inferno spends have its time describing the tortures of Dante's enemies (who you don't know of or care about). John Milton, on the other hand, is writing about the Book of Genesis, a story that most in our culture are well versed in. You'll know the main characters (if not all the minor ones), which will give a grounding for Milton's expansion of the story. Aside for the story itself, Milton's philosophical themes are also more modern than any other famous epic poem. Individuality, disobedience, love, redemption, all of these are common themes that Milton expounds upon. You won't spend many pages concerned with the social structure of a vanished civilization.

To conclude, Paradise Lost is a work of Genius. This book is important for overall literacy (just think of all the books that have taken titles and inspiration from its lines). That usually means that the book will be a pill, but not in this case. Milton's verse makes the lines fly by.

The Paradise Within
"Paradise Lost" by John Milton is the definitive English epic poem (even if it does not always read like one).Much more a dramatic tragedy, Milton's extension of the biblical story of the Fall of both Satan and mankind is timeless.For while Milton may have woven the politics of his own time in regards to tyrannical kings and their heroic counterparts into the battle between heaven and hell, it is a situation that lends itself to any century.

Many critics have often thought the 'problem' with "Paradise Lost" was the fact that Satan seems like the epic hero - the reader immediately begins identifying himself with Satan and rooting for him in his fight against God, an uneasy feeling to be sure.However, as the course of the poem unfolds, Satan's true tragic nature reveals itself and the reader can marvel in Milton's keen ability to bring to life Heaven, Hell, and Paradise (the Garden of Eden).The epic begins in Hell with the fallen angel now known as Satan rousing his troops into further rebellion against God, but the only action they can take is to pollute his newfound paradise and its brand new inhabitants, Adam and Eve.Satan undertakes the journey to spy out the land and learn how to tempt these two to sin.And while he is successful in his attempt to do so, it is a victory that gains Satan no glory, since he does not understand that he can never truly win against God.

Milton set out to answer the question of what (or who) caused Adam and Eve to sin, tracing some of the blame away from Satan and examining the relationship between Adam and Eve in the garden.Milton perhaps raises more questions than he does offer any answers, but that is partly what makes "Paradise Lost" a mirror that still reflects today.Milton includes numerous classical allusions that readers of his day would be familiar with, as well as biblical accounts (including apocryphal works) to flesh out the barebones structure of the biblical account in Genesis.While parts of the poem can be tedious (especially the seemingly somewhat unnecessary books 11 and 12), "Paradise Lost" is a true masterpiece of literature that should be required reading for everyone, regardless of any religious preferences, for at its heart it is an examination of what it means to be.

Too dense
First, let me state that I am not a fan of poetry.I find the way it obscures meaning and ebroiders every last thought in metaphor and simile to be frustrating and distracting.I'm so busy trying to figure out what each line means that I forget where I am in the overall scheme of things.

After making my way through The Oddysey, Beowulf and the Divine Comedy, I thought I could handle Milton's Paradise Lost.I was wrong.

I make it a personal mission that try to I finish every book I start.In the last 10 years, I can remember having failed in this only 4 times:
- On The Origin of Species (Charles Darwin);
- The Republic (Plato);
- The Four-Gated City (Doris Lessing); and
- Paradise Lost by John Milton.

My major criticisms include the following:

- Sentences are drawn out to intolerable length, stacked with metaphor upon metaphor, until I get halfway down the page and I've forgotten how the sentence started!
- Although stated at the start of the book that rhyme was deliberately avoided, I found the absence of any rhyme reduced the poetic impact for me.
- It was hard to fall into the metre of the verse, which made it more difficult for me to get into the flow of the tale (possibly related to the lack of rhyme stated above).
- The decriptions were so flowery and interwoven that I often found that what I thought was a decription of one entity was in fact two or more!

In the end, I just couldn't do it.

To be fair though, of the small section I read (I got to the end of Book III I think) there were a few passages which were clear enough that I was able to appreciate the beauty of the language.Also, I appreciated the way Milton attempted to characterise the War in Heaven and its aftermath.Such a critical foundation of Judeo-Christian theology is given short shrift in the Bible and other works; giving it some depth was a valiant effort.But there weren't enough of the good parts to keep me engaged, more's the pity.

This may be a cornerstone of English literature, but it wasn't for me.If you enjoy thick, dense poetry, and apocryphal theology, then enjoy with my blessing.It was too much for me.

Cheap but you get what you pay for.
My Kindle version lacks an introduction and any footnotes or endnotes.When it comes to the clasics I guess it is better not to use Kindle until they work out all the issues.This is the second book I've had a problem with.I tried a sample of Boswell's Life of Johnson and it was unreadable.Milton is worth reading just not in this format.

Great Buy
Paradise Lost has so far turned out to be just as enticing as I had hoped. I read a small part of this back in high school and finally decided to pick it up and read the whole thing. The book was shipped right away and was in great condition when it came. ... Read more

Product Description
First published by Odyssey Press in 1957, this classic edition provides Milton’s poetry and major prose works, richly annotated, in a sturdy and affordable clothbound volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Text book purchase.
One of the most SUPERB all-around transactions I've had on Amazon.com -- super fleet shipment; clean copy in excellent condition; no fuss or follow-ups on order whatsoever.Straightforward and hassle-free -- everything expected and more from an on-line transaction.TERRIFIC!

Best Collection of Milton Available
This is the best collection of Milton works available that I know of: sturdy, with thick white pages offering ample room for note taking, numerous footnotes, rare works such as Christian Doctrine (which is extremely interesting)and writings from people who knew Milton. Nothing more needs be said. The price, $40 something, is insanely cheap if you consider how much you're paying per work - probably comes out to a couple dollars each.

A lifetime of Milton resides between the durable covers of this book, inexhaustible hours with one of the greatest writers of the English language. Truly, this is one of the most enjoyable books I own.

A COLLEGE TEXT I"D BUY AGAIN
Coming from someone who was so frugal that my choice of major in college was influenced by the fact I could find most required reading for a dual degree in philosophy and English literature in the library rather than pay my hard earned money for books that were not worthy.... this is my strongest possible recommendation:This was one of the few texts I actually shelled out money for in college without regret and would even purchase AGAIN! ( My copy was destoryed by Hurricane Isabel) I have fond memories of studying Milton, and when he seemed at his most confusing the notes in this text were wonderfully clear.

This is the best edition
Others have suggested the Norton is the edition for college students.I disagree.The Hughes edition is definitely worth the money.The notes arethe best -- in reading criticism on Milton, there's usually plenty ofreferences to Mr. Hughes's notations themselves.This is the standard,accepted text.This is the complete poems, with his Latin and Italianpoetry appearing ajacent to an English translation.There's a generousselection of Milton's prose, too.

Spend the wad and buy the book.Ifyou're reading this, then you're a bibliophile, no doubt.For the rest ofyour life wouldn't you prefer to have the best edition of Milton on yourshelf, or will you be satisified with a $9 Signet Classic?(I tossedmine.)

Check out the Dore Illustrations for PL, too.

BTW, afterreading Areopagitica, I believe that everything Jeffereson said was a debtto Milton.

The Text to Own
This is still the most extensive, best-annotated, one-volume Milton set available. As the blurb above indicates, Hughes presents all the poems and prose in chronological sequence, so it is easy to trace the great poet'sincreasing facility, and later mastery, in both areas. We start withMilton, the fifteen-year-old student, translating Psalms from the Hebrew aswell as passages from the love poems of Ovid and Properius. We then followhim to Cambridge, where he really starts assimilating all his classicalstudies, first fashioning imitative Latin elegies followed by his firstpoems of native genius, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity,""On Shakespeare," "L'Allegro and Il Penseroso."

Hughe's edition is invaluable as a tool for students, scholars, or generalreaders. The notes never get in the way of the text, but will lead thereader to relevant sources should he/she desire to learn more about a givenallusion or want morebackground. If the reader is patient, and actuallyreads all the material that comes before "Paradise Lost", he/shewill be rewarded with a richer understanding of Milton's magnum opus.Please be advised that if you have made it that far, don't stop there."Paradise Regained" and "Sampson Agonistes" arepowerful examples of epic poetry as well. I personally feel that"Paradise Regained" has had almost as large an impact on modernfiction in particular (Dostoevsky and Flaubert are prime examples)as has"Paradise Lost."

Blake said that Milton was of Satan's partywithout knowing it. Actually Milton's prose does open up some interestingpossibilities in that sphere. In "Areopagitica" he advocates forthe necessity of evil. He was, as history has amply recorded, hardly adefender of central authority. He was emphatic about individual liberty andwouldn't be dictated to by Pope or King.

There are several short earlybiographies of the poet at the end of the book. All paint a portrait of anidiosyncratic genius who suffered numerous setbacks both physical andpolitical, particularly in his last decades. He was an extraordinarilybrave man, who has taken some heat from Virginia Woolf and later feministsfor his "ill use" of his daughters, who, the line goes, he keptin ignorance and near slavery so that they could aid him as ameneunsesafter he went blind. If such detractorshad actually done any wide readingon the subject (Shawcrosse is an excellent source) they would not have madesuch charges. Though not what could be described as a "lovingfather," Milton certainly never inveighed against his daughters toremain "indentured" to him, nor did he subvert any marriage plansthey arranged (none were forced into "arranged marriages" either,though the practice was still common in that era). He didn't tutor them inthe Languages he asked them to transcribe, per se. But this begs thequestion, if they were'nt taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew, how would theyhave been able to act as scribes in those languages in the first place?

I'm sorry to see that this volume is now almost $100. In this day oflarge trade paperbacks, perhaps a more affordable edition will beforthcoming. ... Read more

Product Description
The first major biography of America’s twenty-eighth president in nearly two decades, from one of America’s foremost Woodrow Wilson scholars.

A Democrat who reclaimed the White House after sixteen years of Republican administrations, Wilson was a transformative president—he helped create the regulatory bodies and legislation that prefigured FDR’s New Deal and would prove central to governance through the early twenty-first century, including the Federal Reserve system and the Clayton Antitrust Act; he guided the nation through World War I; and, although his advocacy in favor of joining the League of Nations proved unsuccessful, he nonetheless established a new way of thinking about international relations that would carry America into the United Nations era. Yet Wilson also steadfastly resisted progress for civil rights, while his attorney general launched an aggressive attack on civil liberties.

Even as he reminds us of the foundational scope of Wilson’s domestic policy achievements, John Milton Cooper, Jr., reshapes our understanding of the man himself: his Wilson is warm and gracious—not at all the dour puritan of popular imagination. As the president of Princeton, his encounters with the often rancorous battles of academe prepared him for state and national politics. Just two years after he was elected governor of New Jersey, Wilson, now a leader in the progressive movement, won the Democratic presidential nomination and went on to defeat Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in one of the twentieth century’s most memorable presidential elections. Ever the professor, Wilson relied on the strength of his intellectual convictions and the power of reason to win over the American people.

John Milton Cooper, Jr., gives us a vigorous, lasting record of Wilson’s life and achievements. This is a long overdue, revelatory portrait of one of our most important presidents—particularly resonant now, as another president seeks to change the way government relates to the people and regulates the economy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Excellent biography of an often misunderstood preisdent
Well written and deeply researched.If you have an interest in Wilson, the Progressive Movement amd WW 1 and its aftermath it is a great read.

A fair biography of a controversial president
Woodrow Wilson was as much of a conversation maker in his own time as he is in our own.Most recently, opinionated pundit Glenn Beck has labeled the twenty eighth president as one of the worst in U.S. History.He has even gone so far as to call Wilson "an evil man." Because current events are saturated with debate on such questions as the proper balance between the branches of government, the relationship between government and industry, and the role of the United States in the world at large, the fact that Wilson tackled the same issues nearly one hundred years ago makes this biography all the more intriguing.And although a comparison between Wilson's time and our own was likely not the intention of the author, the reader none-the-less cannot help but note the similarities between the two.

Wilson came to power after a particularly contentious election, which saw two former presidents (Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft) vying for a return to that office.As president, he directed the enactment of legislation which ultimately transformed the way our government functioned-making the executive office the center of leadership, while regulating to Congress the lesser responsibility of ironing out the details of the president's agenda.Unfortunately, because he dictated his ideas to Congress, instead of working with that body on the formation of crucial policies, Wilson ultimately failed to get Congress to pass the most important legislation of his presidency (the involvement of the U.S. in the League of Nations).Consequently, as Cooper suggests, because of this failure at the height of Wilson's influence, the outbreak of the Second World War occurred only twenty years after the end of the first.

Although he seems to criticize Congress' inability to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, Cooper is certainly not apologetic in his treatment of Wilson's public and private lives.For instance, in discussing the president's leadership style, he criticizes Wilson's reckless abandonment of responsibility in pursuit of the future-Mrs. Edith Wilson.President and Mrs. Wilson's decision to remain in office after the president's debilitating stroke receives similar scrutiny.

In the end, Cooper's study is a fair biography of a controversial president.It is worth reading, if for no other reason, because the figure at the center of its story is still relevant nearly a century after he first took office.

Aseminal one-volume biography about a controversial president
During the last days of his presidency,one famous journalist,Ray Stannard Baker, has visited Woodrow Wilson,who was recovering from a strong stroke.Baker was shocked and wrote:"A broken,ruined old man,shuffling along his left arm inert,the fingers drawn up like a claw,the left side of his face sagging frightfully.His voice is not human;it gurgles in his throat,sounds like that of an automaton.And yet his mind seems as alert as ever."
Sic transit gloria Wilson.He was indeed a very controversial president and his actions are still felt today.Suffice it to mention the Versailles Treaty which in itself caused a lot of post-war problems and is regarded as a conclave which has brought only further divisions and hardships among the many nations that were scrutinized and debated then.
Wilson was a Democrat who ascended to the White House after many years of Republican administrations,and he wanted to be remembered as a president who had worked in order to change not only his country but also the world order.It was Wilson who guided his nation through WW1 and Professor Cooper is extremely adroit in demonstrating how many efforts Wilson has made in order to avoid America's entrance into this horrible war.Volens nolens,in the end he had no choice and the barbaric submarine war conducted by the Germans pin addition to the Zimmermann telegram were the last straws which were used by the president to convene the Congress in order to declare war against Germany and its Allies.The isolationist days of America were over and now Wilson went out on a crusade to make the world safe for democracy.
Another controversial aspect discussed at length in this fascinating study is the way the subject of the League of Nations was advocated by Wilson but proved to be unsuccessful.In spite of this, Wilson managed to change the way people and policy makers would think about international relations that would carry America into the United Nations era.
On the one hand Wilson appears to be detached and cool, while on the other hand he is deeply a passionate man in his private life and Professor Cooper is superb when describing the president's private affairs, his two wives(Ellen and Edith),his lover(Peck), his children and in-laws.Quotes from the president's letters are supplied throughout the study.
Yet Wilson also vehemntly resisted progress for civil rights,while his attorney general launched an aggressive attack on civil liberties.Race relations were totally ignored.Wilson was prepared to fight his enemies and adversaries with all the means he got from his days as president at Princeton.He was the msot intellectual president the USA has had and one of his books is still regarded a milestone for those who study politics and constitutional law.It was Wilson who took care to nominate the first Jewish judge ,Louis D. brandeis,to the Supreme Court,in the era when anti-semitism played a significant role in the USA.Despite coming from a religious home,Wilson did not go to war in 1917 because he thought God was telling him to do so.As the president put it:"War is not declared in the name of God:it is a human affair entirely".Unlike Theodore Roosevelt,his greatest rival,he never compared politics to religion and preaching and had never supported the greatest moral reform crusadeof their time-Prohibition.He despised Fundamentalist manifestations.
The best part of the book is the second one where Wilson is busy in his efforts to establish peace in Europe.The negotiations had worn him out physically and emotionally and the decisions he made in the process of peace-making have stirred almost as much argument as his decision to enter the war.His famous Fourteen Points have caused a lot of controversies not only in Europe but also at home and this further drew fire from his opponents.His stroke which made him an invalide also led America to undergo the worst presidential crisis in American history.
As Professor Cooper points out, many sawor regarded Wilson as an Amerian Icarus,who perished because he flew too close to the sun.Boldness and thinking big marked the president all his life,and this charaterized him during his days at Princeton and as the governor of New Jersey.
This volume is very rich in details and is a very comprehensive combination of scholarship and narrative and shows an extraordinary but also deeply flawed president and leader who started hsi career as a dynamic reformer and ended it shortsighted and delusional.

Woodrow Wilson - PROGRESSIVE
Unfortunately this President was instrumental in making our government a monstrosity and he is one of the first progressives to create this "nanny state" in America.when are we going to see that you must take personal accountability and not expect government to "bail" you out during every difficult time.

A review
Please note: I will state up front that this is not a review of the book per se, but of a talk the author gave yesterday about the book, and which I attended (I have done this kind of review before on Amazon, and it got a good reception, so I ask that you please allow me to do this here).

First off I just want to say that the author seems like a very good scholar and his comments were very balanced. I managed to ask him one question, but here is what I wanted to ask him:

- He states that Wilson is one of the more successful presidents, despite some pretty "serious" civil liberties violations. Well, I think that George Bush and Nixon would be glad to hear that, because what Wilson did was 100 times worse than what they did. Woodrow Wilson imprisoned over 175,000 people for the "crime" of speaking out against the war in 1917-1918. His administration is clearly the worst civil liberties offender in US history. Newspapers were closed down if they criticized the war effort. Some have called Wilson's US "statolotry" = worship of the state. Wilson arrested more dissidents than Mussolini in Italy ! Any criticism of the war effort could earn a prison sentence. German books were purged from libraries. German-Americans were harrassed. The American Protective League, which operated like the Secret Police in East Germany, spied on Americans and turned them in.

- The author blames this "rigidity" on Wilson having had a stroke. Evidently, the stroke was to blame for this all happening. I find that explanation really unsatisfactory. (and how do we not know that the "stroke version" of Wilson was not the "real Wilson" ?... or that he himself just used the illness as an excuse).

- Creating the Federal Reserve. Some (Austrian economists like the Nobel Prize winner Hayek blame the prolongation of the Great Depression on the Federal Reserve). In our current 2008 financial crisis, the Fed is, in my view responsible for setting interest rates far too low, thus creating a massive housing bubble.

- World War I: The author makes it sound like the Germans began hunting US cruise ships in the Atlantic for fun in 1915-1917. He did not mention that the US cruise ships like the Lusitania were carrying arms to the British. When I mentioned that they found guns on the ocean floor near the Lusitania wreck, the author poo-pooed it by saying "(only) some rifles". In reality, one can view this incident as the US precipitating entry into World War I, the way that the US did in World War II by cutting Japan's rubber and oil supplies from Malaysia, thus forcing the Japanese into a corner, or the way we got into the Spanish-American War, or the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam. The US seems to force a potential adversary into a corner, and then when he hits us, we get into the war.

- The League of Nations: Was considered a huge joke by almost everyone. Failed. And yet, the author views it as some sort of triumph for Wilson. The United Nations is more associated today with the Iraq Food for Oil scandal, for screw-ups like the gay Dutch soldiers in Srebrenica allowing the Serbs to massacre Muslims, and for things like Moroccan UN troops trading supplies for sex in the Congo. Hardly a "world government" to be proud of.

- The rise of fascism. This is the part I really don't get. The Versailles Treaty is almost always acknowledged as a terrible decision, which almost forced fascism to rise in Europe in its wake. I agree with the author that Wilson was not 100% responsible for it. But I think the author gives Wilson way too much of a pass on this.

I will leave on a quote from Wilson himself, as a student and a member of the "progressive movement", in 1890, and let you decide for yourself, if Wilson was just forced into war, or whether, as a true progressive, he viewed war and the national state as necessary in order to remake society along the lines of the "philosopher kings" from the Ivy League:

" The true leader uses the masses like tools". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

UNSUITABLE FOR ANY AGE
This is a painfully impotent adaptation of Milton's monumental work. The children's storybook style cannot support the profundity of the subject matter. Sex and violence are sanitized and passions softened, while "minutes tick and seconds tock" and the results are sometimes ludicrous. Some compositions simply do not lend themselves to watering down and should be left to the age group for which they were intended. The kids can wait. ... Read more

Product Description
Contemporary American began in the first two decades of this century.These were the years in which two of our greatest presidents—Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—transformed the office into the center of power; in which the United States entered the world stage and fought its first overseas war; in which the government's proper role in the economy became a public question; and in which reform became an imperative for muckraking reporters, progressive politicians, social activists, and writers.

It was a golden age in American politics, when fundamental ideas were given compelling expression by thoughtful candidates. It was a trying time, however, for many Americans, including women who fought for the vote, blacks who began organizing to secure their rights, and activists on the Left who lost theirs in the first Red Scare of the century.

John Cooper's panoramic history of this period shows us where we came from and sheds light on where we are. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Superb, Concise Book on American History 1900 to 1920
This is one of the best written books I have ever read. Professor Cooper's writing is concise and easy to read, which is an extraordinary achievement considering the enormous amount of information packed into this medium-to-small sized book. You will learn much, yet the book is a quick-paced joy to read. More history should be written like this.

The book has many pictures and other visual aids, such as maps and newspaper headlines, to help bring the story to life. It succeeds marvelously. I believe this to be the best single-volume book on the Progressive Era, beginning at the end of the Gilded Age, through World War I, to the start of the roaring twenties. An enormous amount of fascinating history takes place during that era with many fascinating characters, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Fighting Bob LaFollette, William Jennings Bryant, the suffragists, the religious crusaders to solve social ills, and the Gilded Age capitalists. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson are featured most prominantly. Indeed, the author also wrote an outstanding biography of Roosevelt and Wilson called "The Warrior and the Priest." This book can also be considered a concise and excellent biography of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

The story begins during the late Gilded Age, when America was a bustling industrial superpower. Great capitalists of the era, such as Morgan and Rockefeller, enter the story. You get a balanced portrait of the economy that employed many people and created progress but had a harsh side to to it. You learn about the Muckraker reporters who uncovered scandals and the rise of socialists among the working class, although they never gained much power.

You briefly learn what America was like at that time of great change. America had been mostly a rural country and now was both a rural country and a modern industrial economy. The rural people and generally the Democratic party, with power mainly in the south and midwest, favored low tarriffs and polices helping the pastoral life. William Jennings Bryant exemplified these views. He fought for the farmers with his legendary "cross of gold" speech. Yet his rural ways and religiosity, common among many people, made his a less-desirable candidate among swing voters, and he was defeated multiple times in his bid for the presidency.

President McKinley was a mild imperialist and brought American on the world stage. He won the presidency by campaigning only from his porch in Ohio. The industrialists were so afraid of Bryant that they donated an unprecedently amount of money to McKinley. Although he was strongly pro-business and supported high tarriffs, McKinley slightly lowered tarriffs as president and began early anti-trust actions against monopolies.

Several presidents back then came from Ohio, which shows you where the power was concentrated back then.

Theodore Roosevelt is then prominantly features for much of the book. He was not the fervent trust-buster that he has been portrayed. He thought bigness was a good thing. He just did not like the bigness to become so big as to become a monopoly and thwart competition. He also wanted to establish the principle that government had the right to regulate business. He used the Bully Pulpit to lobby his causes to the public. At first he was probably more conservative than progressive, despite being very progressive, yet he became much more progressive as he got older. In his youth he felt that Hamilton was right in the original struggle between Jefferson and Hamilton, but he finally came to believe that Jefferson was right. He was a very colorful person and probably the biggest personality of his time. You will need to read this book to learn all the fascinating history surrounding Roosevelt, and there is so much in this book.

Wilson won the presidency when Roosevelt ran for president as a progressive under the Bull Moose, splitting the Republican votes. Wilson created so many things, such as the Federal Reserve (later improved by FDR), Federal Trade Commission, the progressive tax, direct election of U.S. senators, and more. At this time, women received the right to vote. You learn about the suffragists. This is fascinating history!

I was very surprised to learn that Wilson was such an internationalist. He sent marines several times to nations in latin America, including a fiasco in Mexico. His presidency climaxed in World War I. Read the book to learn the fascinating details. Wilson was also a rigidly religious man who later rigidly refused to compromise with Henry Cabbotte Lodge on the League of Nations legislation (and the compromise was better than what Wilson had originally proposed).

Southern racism and segregation were still subtle but powerful forces in American politics, although few people talked about it or even acknowledged it, except for maybe W.E.B. Du Bubois and then the vocal backlash to Roosevelt when he invited Du Bois to the White House. Thousands of African American served with distinction in World War I, and after coming home from the egalitarian France, they were subjected to segregation. Other rural whites, once seeing Paris, did not want to return to boring lives on farms. The war brought about many changes.

This is an outstanding and enjoyable book to read. You briefly learn about Hull House and the religous workers trying to solve the ills of poverty, prohibition, the railroads, popular entertainment, and more. I highly recommend it if you are interested in any of the people, movements, or history of the era, or if you are just looking for an enjoyable read. Highest rating!

Easy to read and informative
I liked this book. It details the history of the USA in pretty sensible chronological order from 1900 to 1920, with good description of the events during those momentous decades.It is pretty balanced, and should not offend anyone with biases one way or the other.The author is an authority on the two dominating figures of those decades, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, and I read his dual study, The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, on October 7, 1995, with much appreciation.Cooper writes in a clear style, and even tho this book read like a college textbook, hey, it is fun to read a college textbook on such interesting subjects as this book deals with.A good and worthwhile book.

An Excellent Book
I was required to read this book (it reads like a textbook)for an American history class I was taking in my sophomore year, and I love the book. Cooper integrated various facets (political, social, military, and cultural history) into a solid and interesting read. It can be a little dense at times, but it is a very good beginning for those interested in twentieth-century American history.

Well-organized and an enjoyable read
I had to read this book for my US History,1914-1945 class, and I have to admit, I am quite pleased with it. It was well-organized and gives an in-depth look into the Roosevelt and Wilson presidencies. This book is a must for anyone interested in 20th-century American history.

The Tide of the Century
These years at the beginning of the century seemed so intense.A good read when reviewing this century that (almost) was.The author tries to write a comprehensive look at everything that was happening in the US atthe time, from fashion to politics.However, make no mistake, the author'sfavorite topic and more richly covered is: politics.There are referencesat the end on the amazing amount of literary work of the era, which istantamount.All in all, a very good introductory to that time and age, anda very good starting point for a researcher in the world of those years. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Review of Paradise Lost, Dover Edition.
I bought this book for a course on Milton's Paradise Lost.
The book is very helpful since each line is numbered.
There are no footnotes.

Heroic Epic Poetry at its Finest


Paradise Lost is English heroic verse of the first order:pure, inspiring, instructive.

This Dover Edition is well organized and a delight to read.

Merry Christmas all,

Vince Parrett

No Viagra for THIS poet!!
First off, let me say that we're not talking here about the famous Qi gong instructor named John Milton. We're talking about the famous 17th-century English poet who wrote _Paradise Lost_ and _Paradise Regained_, two of the most wonderfully overlong Christian poems in the history of Western literature.

Your English teacher will tell you that _Paradise Lost_ "narrates the story of Adam and Eve's disobedience, explains how and why it happened, and places the story within the larger context of Satan's rebellion and Jesus' resurrection." And you know that can't be far wrong, because SparkNotes says the exact same thing.

But the main reason everyone should read Milton's grand epic is that it contains certain secrets about prayer.

In PL, Milton reminds us how important it is, when we pray, to be absolutely specific. The Lord has a strange, often disturbing, sense of humour (PL, books I-XII). If you leave Him wiggle room, He will answer your prayer in a way you never intended, and then say it was your own damned fault, because your prayer contained seven types of ambiguity.

John Milton writes from experience. Example: Almost every time a good-looking woman passed within view of John Milton, he suffered an involuntary erection. Daniel of the Old Testament might well have suffered such a condition without complaining, but John Milton found it onerous. John was both a Puritan and a student of Saint Augustine. He was not happy when he suffered an erection, he hated it, and he especially resented the women who made that thing happen to him.

In a Latin letter to his friend, George Wither, John Milton reports that, in his youth, he would sometimes see a pretty woman even in his dreams at night, and suffer, not just an erection, but the whole nine yards, up to and including a nocturnal emission; which he trained himself to handle according to Scripture, thereby to purify himself (Deut. 23:10); but sometimes he was unable to wait that long before he handled it, which filled his soul full of Puritan remorse and self-reproach.

At age 33, the poet took to wife a 16-year-old lolita named Mary Powell; and you may already have guessed the reason why, which is that she gave him an erection -- more accurately, she gave him "one damned erection after another," without remission. (Giving John Milton an erection was not the girl's conscious intent, but it just happened to him, every time they met.) And since Christian marriage is Saint Paul's only approved method whereby to deal with that kind of torment, John Milton (being an honourable man) thought it best to marry the girl (1 Cor. 7:9).

Frailty, thy name is woman! After two years of marriage - after just two years of witnessing those insufferable erections that could not be beaten down, or at least, not for long - the poet's young Puritan bride ran away and skipped back home to live with her mother, Mrs. Anne Powell, who likewise gave John an erection; which is why John Milton resented his mother-in-law as well as his estranged wife.

Those were the hardest years of the poet's life - nothing but a daily struggle against involuntary erections, yet here he was, trapped in a loveless marriage to a barely pubescent teenager who lived with her entirely-too-attractive mother. Which is partly why John Milton wrote those four revolutionary Christian pamphlets, correcting Moses' and Jesus' hardline policy on divorce (Mark 10:11-12).

In his Latin correspondence, some of which is preserved in the Bodleian Library, John Milton reports that he was fine when alone in his study, or when hobnobbing with Parliamentarians, or even when having a hasty pudding, or a figgy one, over at the Inns of Court; but let just one good-looker cross his path, showing good ankle between the hem of her dress and the top of her shoe, and it was boing! - instant erection, just like a spring-loaded mechanical device; causing John to exclaim bitterly, "Oh, God, please, not again! Save me from this penal fire!"

It even happened to him once when Oliver Cromwell's wife, Elizabeth Bourchier Cromwell, bent over to pick up a handkerchief that had fallen to the floor. On that occasion there was a lamentable accident ("an hard mishap" [verbatim quote]) with John's ordinarily modest codpiece - an incident so humiliating that John never even wrote a poem about it, although he did apologise, profusely, to Oliver Cromwell, and to Mrs. Cromwell, who saw the whole thing, and then fainted. (John at the time was employed as Cromwell's Latin secretary.)

By the way: It was modesty, not arrogance, that moved John Milton, after that embarrassing incident, to wear a baggy codpiece, with plenty of wiggle room.

Which brings me back to the beginning, when I was explaining why you should give the Lord no wiggle room when you pray: John Milton took his problem to the Lord in prayer, stating in his journal, "Father, I pray Thee, let me not suffer a stiffe joynt when I see a beautifull woman."

And here's how the Lord answered that prayer, in 1651: He struck John Milton blind.

At first, John thought that his blindness was a punishment for his own bad behaviour - which is how that whole thing got going, in Anglo-American Christianity, about how, if you are a boy who does what John Milton used to do, it could make you go blind. But God revealed to John, by means of a dream, that his blindness was actually an answer to his own prayers ¬- because the poet had said, "Father, let me not suffer a stiff joint when I see a beautiful woman."

John Milton then said, "Lord, that is not what I meant, at all" - but it was too late to change the outcome, because the prayer was already answered.

The erections that John Milton suffered in the years 1651-1674, and there were many, even after the Lord answered his prayer, were not from seeing a beautiful woman, it was actually because John had a condition that modern physicians call PSAS ("Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome"). So the chronic "stiffe joynt" problem was not really the women's fault, and it never was; but John Milton never knew that. Even when he wrote Paradise Lost (by dictation, from 1652-1667), John was still under the impression that women, seen or unseen, were to blame for his condition; which is why he makes all of those snide remarks in blank verse about your mother, Eve, in Books IV-V and IX-X of Paradise Lost. Because whenever he pictured Eve in his mind's eye, it was boing! - the same old problem. And there would come no more blank verse to his head for the next twenty minutes or so, until things settled down. John Milton hated that.

But it all turned out for the best: if God had not answered John Milton's prayer in that unusual way, by blinding him, Paradise Lost might never have been completed, and sold to the publisher, Sam Simmons, in 1667, for £5 - which was a tidy sum for a religious poem during the decadent Restoration era.

It was while writing the early books of Paradise Lost that John was introduced to Katherine, a ship captain's daughter, a fat woman whom he had never seen (because he was blind); whom he nonetheless married in 1656, but not for the same old reason as before: John asked fat Kate to marry him (a.) because he needed secretarial assistance with Paradise Lost, and (b.) because Katherine did not have the same pernicious effect on him as Mary Powell and her mother Anne had done. John could dictate blank verse to Kate all night long without feeling so much as a tingle down there.

Kate's surname was Woodcock. Beelzebub made a little joke about that: he said, "The Lord finally gave John Milton just what he always wanted."

- L.

Cheap and well done
A heafty volume for a thrifty price.Good binding, clean & easy to read font and enough room in the margins for notes if you are a student.A great side item if you get the Dore' engravings of Paradise Lost [which are just quotes from the book and not the whole poem] and want to read more than just the famous lines.

Unabriged and yet small enough to get away with lugging around.

From the Publisher
"'From almost the moment of its publication in 1667, Paradise Lost was considered a classic.It is difficult now to appreciate both how audacious an undertaking it represents, and how astonishing its immediate and continued success was.Over the course of twelve books Milton wrote an epic poem that would ''justify the ways of God to men,'' a mission that required a complex drama whose source is both historical and deeply personal.The struggle for ascendancy between God and Satan is played out across hell, heaven, and earth but the consequences of the Fall are all too humanly tragic--pride, ambition, and aspiration the motivating forces.'In this new edition derived from their Oxford Authors text, Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg discuss the complexity of Milton's poem in a new introduction, and on-page notes explain its language and allusions."
... Read more

Product Description
Written by two of the world's leading Milton scholars, widely praised as "illuminating" (Times Literary Supplement), "seamlessly written (Publishers Weekly), and "a book of permanent value" (Literary Review), and winner of the Milton Society's James Holly Hanford Award, this magnificent biography sheds fresh new light on the writings, the thought, and the life of poet John Milton. A more human Milton appears in these pages, a Milton who is flawed, self-contradictory, self-serving, arrogant, passionate, ruthless, ambitious, and cunning. He is also among the most accomplished writers of the period, the most eloquent polemicist of the mid-century, and the author of the finest and most influential narrative poem in English, Paradise Lost, which the book examines in detail. What Milton achieved in the face of crippling adversity, blindness, bereavement, and political eclipse, remains wondrous. Here is a fascinating biography of this towering literary figure--the first new serious study in forty years--one that profoundly challenges the received wisdom about one of England's leading poets and thinkers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Weighted Down With Too Much Minutiae
While I agree with the other reviewer that this is a meticulously researched work, I feel as if the authors continually get bogged down in senseless details that have little to do with the narrative of Milton's life. While the research is impressive, the tale requires a lot more pruning of minutiae to be a truly enjoyable read.

Excellent biography
Though not a Milton scholar, I do appreciate this biography's up-to-date scholarly apparatus--one could follow those notes for years--and attention to detail. But the plus is that the book is well written from a narrative standpoint. This is a satisfying work for anyone who loves Milton's poetry and wants to know something about the life and the world that produced it. ... Read more

Product Description
An important and innovative edition of Milton's shorter verse & the first volume to present the poems with the original spelling and pronunciations intact, offering readers the opportunity to experience the vitality of the poems as they were experienced by Milton’s contemporaries

• Includes Milton's original Latin poems, with a new English translation on facing pages for cross-comparison
• Serves as a companion to Lewalski's Paradise Lost and Loewenstein's prose selections of Milton
• Features both collected and uncollected poetry in English, Latin, and Greek, the latter two with translations
• Retains original spelling and punctuation of Milton's 1645 Poems and his 1671 Paradise Regained and Sampson Agonistes
• Offers readers comprehensive footnotes, marginal glosses, chronology, bibliography, and longer discussions in introductions to sections

Product Description
This volume presents a complete text of all Milton's verse. Coleridge linked Milton and Shakespeare as the greatest of English poets, and even in our time Milton continues to exert a powerful influence, both on the writing of poetry and on critical debate. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Great Collection
John Milton has long been recognized as the greatest poet in English after Shakespeare and a world literature treasure. Many of his short poems are perennially put among the greatest lyrics, especially "Lycidas" and his ground-breaking sonnets, which revolutionized the form and were immensely influential with sonneteers like William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley. He is of course most famous for Paradise Lost, his masterpiece; the greatest epic poem in English, it is rivaled only by Dante's Divine Comedy as the best modern epic. Paradise Regained, its mini-epic sequel, and the dramas Comus and Samson Agonistes are also among his legendary works. Besides all this, Milton's prose remains important and widely read, particularly his political work.

Many things make Milton great, not least that he is one of the few poets able to successfully combine beauty, artistry, and depth. He is usually considered the most learned English poet and was indeed among the most educated people of his day, perhaps of all time - a fearsomely well-read polyglot steeped in theology, philosophy, literature, science, and more. This has unfortunately kept many from reading him, but there is really nothing to fear; his intellect of course shows up but far more subtly than one would expect. Unlike Modernist writers with similar reputations, he is not obscure or massively allusive; nearly all his references are to the Bible and classical mythology sources that his readers would have immediately recognized. This is of course not as true now, but Milton remains remarkably readable for a poet of three hundred and fifty years' vintage - far more so, for instance, than Shakespeare.

Yet he is able to work weighty issues, particularly theology and philosophy, into his poetry in a way that only Alexander Pope, Shelley, and Thomas Hardy have been able to rival in English. Milton at his best is extremely thought-provoking but also remarkable for beauty and technical precision of a kind rarely achieved. Above all, his work is notable for a grand, epic sweep that is unmatched in English, putting him on a level with Homer, Virgil, and Dante. This is of course clearest in Paradise Lost, but even short works have it to a very high degree. Simply put, Milton's talent and stature are such that anyone even remotely interested in poetry must be familiar with his collected poems.

Anyone who loves poetry can only be dismayed at its historically low status; even the greats are read less than ever, and poetry seemingly gets only less popular. It is a testament to Milton's greatness that he has largely escaped this, continuing to be read not only by students and scholars but even remaining a popular culture presence, as numerous references in works as diverse as the film Seven and the songs of Nick Cave prove.

The Western world's ever-increasing secularism is probably the greatest obstacle to reading Milton, as nearly all his works and all the major ones deal with the Bible in some way. The passion with which he extols Christianity, particularly the dense intricacies with which he pursues an ongoing theodicy, can easily seem naïve, and it will be near-laughable to some that such a stout Christian was ever considered an intellectual giant. Even the most pious Christians may find Milton's distinct brand of Calvinism off-putting; for example, his Jesus is anything but the proto-hippie peacknik now so widely touted yet also not the fire and brimstone hurler currently favored by fundamentalists. Milton's religious thought may now be of mostly historical interest, but this should not keep anyone from reading and appreciating his great work. Whether one agrees with his views is irrelevant; his majesty and greatness transcend opinion. The vast majority of his poetry may be specifically Christian, and he makes more than a few topical references, but it is universal as only truly great art can be.

Milton's near-uniform excellence makes a collected edition of his poems essential, and there are many versions. This is one of the best both for true comprehensiveness and generous supplemental material. Indeed, the title sells the book rather short; it has not only all the English poems but also several Latin and Italian ones with translations as well as "On Education" and "Areopagitica," his most famous prose works, plus associated appendices. The prose makes up a substantial part of the book - over sixty pages out of 620 - and is a nice bonus. "On Education" details Milton's revolutionary teaching methods and remains an important contribution to a never-ending debate both for its still useful suggestions and as a peek into an era when education was very different from today. The appendix, a reminiscence from Milton's nephew and pupil, gives a more detailed look at the imposing curriculum. "Areopagitica" is Milton's legendary response to the Puritan Parliament's infamous Licensing Order authorizing book censorship. It of course has many contemporary references, but Milton's strong free speech defense is unfortunately still necessary. This is a classic treatise with many superb quotes and arguments that are still widely used and a cornerstone - indeed, a building block - of modern liberalism even if the fact that it seems strikingly conservative in some ways shows how much liberalism has changed, also making it historically valuable. The Order itself is also usefully included as an appendix.

This edition is also remarkable for secondary material. In line with other Everyman editions, it has a lengthy introduction giving an excellent overview of Milton's life and thought, the context of the poems, and some critical analysis; a Milton chronology; a bibliography; and extensive notes on the text. Unlike many Everyman editions, it also has numerous in-text notes. Milton's age and learning make notes necessary for most and invaluable for many, and these are exemplary - neither too few or too many and explanatory without forcing an interpretation. The binding is also very high quality, and we even get a built-in bookmark.

In short, this has everything general readers could ever want and will also suffice for nearly all others. The only ones who will be disappointed are the true purists and completists who want all the foreign language poems and those who want original spelling and punctuation. Anyone who has even glanced at seventeenth century texts is well aware that mechanics have changed so drastically that most readers would be lost without extensive footnotes and glosses. This avoids the problem by changing spelling to conform with current usage and altering punctuation when it is likely to confuse. Some will find this blasphemous, especially as it occasionally interferes with meter, but most will appreciate it. Anyone wanting a Milton book and unbothered by these caveats could do no better than this.

Text corrupted by modernization
It's fine, to a point, to modernize spellings of certain words, provided it doesn't alter the pronunciation (changing "Sion" to "Zion" is a no-no). However, the editors of this volume have also chosen to modernize punctuation to the point that it screws up the rhythm. For example, the contraction "th'Aonian mount" that appears in the opening of Paradise Lost becomese "the Aonian", as if modern readers wouldn't be able to figure it out on their own. This kind of meddling adds extra syllables to lines, screwing up Milton's metre and also insulting the intelligence of readers. If you want a really fine edition, shell out some extra cash for the Hughes volume.

Perfect edition ofMilton from everynan's
This everyman's edition does not seem to the edition rated below by others because this has footnotes and not endnotes./ In addition to a wondeful introduction it also contains Aereopagetica and on education which i did not expect from the title. I was pleasanly surpiused by this organzation of the book. Thise works give a good overview of the works, =. Please excuse typos i have a neurologic disease.

The greatness of Milton "They also serve who only stand and wait"
Milton's greatness is evident not only in his greatest work'Paradise Lost' but also in 'Samson Agonistes' and the finest elegy in the language , " Lycidas".It is present in his sonnets and shorter pieces also , and " On His Blindness" is one of the great poems of world - literature.
Milton is a poet of the ear, and there is a powerful music in his verse. His tremendous learning may complicate his poetry for the modern reader, but there are depths in his lines for those who truly probe them.

bad edition
I don't like the endnotes vs. footnotes which are very hard to access and deal with, and I don't like the way the apostrophes are taken out and the words are 'modernized' as it breaks up the flows and rhythms of the works. ... Read more