Written at a time of personal and political crisis in Milton’s career (1658-65), Paradise Lost is the greatest epic poem in English literature. It had an immense influence on the English Romantics and, through them, on modern poetry. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1674 edition of the poem, the last to appeal" in Milton’s lifetime, with a few emendations and adoptions from the first edition and from the scrihal manuscript, as noted...

Written at a time of personal and political crisis in Milton’s career (1658-65), Paradise Lost is the greatest epic poem in English literature. It had an immense influence on the English Romantics and, through them, on modern poetry. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1674 edition of the poem, the last to appeal" in Milton’s lifetime, with a few emendations and adoptions from the first edition and from the scrihal manuscript, as noted. Gordon Teskey provides readers with a freshly edited text intended for those approaching Mi]ton for tile first time. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized, the latter within the limits imposed by Milton’s syntax. The text is accompanied by an introduction, an account of Milton’s life, ample annotations, a glossary., and suggestions for further reading.

"Sources and Backgrounds" includes selections fi’om the Bible and from Milton’s prose writings, including his greatest prose work, Areopagitica, in its entirety.

An unusually rich "Criticism" section collects forty-eight diverse commentaries and interpretations, culled from the enormous body of scholarly writing on the poem. Classic assessments are provided by John Dryden, Voltaire, Samuel Johnson, William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Victor Hugo, and T. S. Eliot, among others. Modern contributors include C. S. Lewis, William Empson, Douglas Bush, Northrop Frye, Barbara Lewalski, Balachandra Rajan, Stanlev Fish, Mary Ann Radzinowicz, Christopher Ricks, Regina Schwartz, lulia Walker, and Helen Vendler.

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction

  The Life of John Milton

  On the Text of Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

  The Verse

  Book One

  Book Two

  Book Three

  Book Four

  Book Five

  Book Six

  Book Seven

  Book Eight

  Book Nine

  Book Ten

  Book Eleven

  Book Twelve

Sources and Backgrounds

SELECTIONS FROM THE BIBLE

  Genesis 1-3, 11-12

  Exodus 14

  Psalms 104, 114, 148

  Isaiah 6, 9, 40

  Ezekiel 1

  Mark 13

  Acts 13

  I Corinthians 15

  Revelation 12, 20-22

SELECTIONS FROM MILTON’S PROSE

  The Reason of Church Government

    Urged against Prelaty (Introduction to Book II)

  Areopagitica

Criticism

CLASSIC CRITICISM OF PARADISE LOST

  Andrew Marvell · On Mr. Milton’s Paradise Lost

  John Dryden · Epigram

   · From Preface to Second Miscellany

  Joseph Addison · From Spectator 297 (Feb. 9, 1712)

   · From Spectator 303 (Feb. 16, 1712)

  Voltaire · From Candide

   · From Essay upon the Civil Wars of France . . . And

   also upon the Epick Poetry of the European Nations

   from Homer to Milton

  Samuel Johnson · From Lives of the English Poets

  Francois-Rene, Vicomte de Chateaubriand · From

   Sketches of English Literature

  William Blake · From The Marriage of Heaven and

   Hell

  William Wordsworth · London, 1802

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge · From Lecture 4

   · Unassigned Lecture Notes [Milton and Paradise Lost]

   · From Table Talk [Milton’s Egotism]

  George Gordon, Lord Byron · From Don Juan

  Percy Bysshe Shelley · From the preface to Prometheus

   Unbound

   · From A Defence of Poetry

  Walter Savage Landor · From Imaginary Conversations

  Victor Hugo · From Cromwell

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson · Milton

  Matthew Arnold · From Milton

  A. E. Housman · From Terence, this is stupid stuff

  T. S. Eliot · From Milton I

   · From Milton II

  MODERN CRITICISM OF PARADISE LOST

On Satan

  C. S. Lewis · From Satan

  Balachandra Rajah · From The Problem of Satan

  A. J. A. Waldock · From Satan and the Technique of

   Degradation

  William Empson · From Satan

  Kenneth Gross · From Satan and the Romantic Satan:

   A Notebook

  William Flesch · From The Majesty of Darkness: Idol

   and Image in Milton

  Regina M. Schwartz · From "Yet Once More":

 Re-Creation, Repetition, and Return

On God

  C. S. Lewis · From the conclusion to A Preface to

Paradise Lost

 William Empson · From Critics

  Stanley Fish · From The Milk of the Pure Word

  Northrop Frye · From The Garden Within

On Adam and Eve

  E. M. W. Tillyard · From Paradise Lost: The Conscious

Meaning and The Unconscious Meaning

  C. S. Lewis · The Fall

 A. J. A. Waldoek · From The Fall (II)

  Northrop Frye · From Children of God and Nature

  Barbara K. Lewalski · From "Higher Argument":

Completing and Publishing Paradise Lost

On Style and Versification

  Douglas Bush · From The Restoration, 1660-74

  Christopher B. Ricks · From Enhancing Suggestions

 Archie Burnett · From "Sense Variously Drawn Out":

The Line in Paradise Lost

On Christian Ideology

 A. S. P. Woodhouse · From Paradise Lost, I: Theme

and Pattern

  Stanley Fish · From With Mortal Voice: Milton

Defends against the Muse

On Feminism

 Joseph A. Wittreieh Jr. · From Critiquing the Feminist

Critique

 Mary Nyquist · From The Genesis of Gendered

Subjectivity in the Divorce Tracts and in Paradise Lost

 Julia M. Walker · From Eve: The First Reflection

On the Poet Himself

 Helen Vendler · From Milton’s Epic Poem

 Mary Ann Radzinowicz · From How Milton Read the

Book of Psalms: His Formal, Stylistic, and Thematic

Analysis

 William Flesch · From The Majesty of Darkness: Idol

and Image in Milton

General Criticism

 E. M. W. Tillyard · Paradise Lost: Possible

Inconsistency

 A. J. A. Waldock · From The Poet and the Theme

Stanley Fish · From Not so much a Teaching as an

  Intangling

Gordon Teskey · From Milton’s Choice of Subject in

  the Context of Renaissance Critical Theory

Glossary of Names in Paradise Lost

Suggestions for Further Reading