THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR An expansive biography of John Milton,
including an assessment of his poetry and prose and an account of
the ways in which he has been presented over the past three and a
half centuries--written by a leading scholar in the field It is
hard to overstate the role that John Milton played in the
historical, political and literary controversies of seventeenth
century England; his writings and very life challenged the status
quo. Living through one of the most tumultuous periods in British
history, Milton was involved at every turn. Struggling to reconcile
his private beliefs with his involvement with a radical political
experiment, a republic which involved the killing of the monarch,
his star rose and fell several times during his life. Married three
times, struck blind at a cruelly early age, he was a famed
pamphleteer and political activist whose revolutionary political
credos placed him in mortal danger after the Restoration. Milton's
varied life makes for fascinating reading but it also produced some
of the most important poetry in the English language. Paradise
Lost, the only poem in English recognized as an epic, challenged
conventional thinking on widespread topics from religion and gender
equality to the fundamental question of why we behave as we do.
This fascinating new biography is divided into two parts. The first
separates the man from the myth, and elucidates the complicated
details of Milton's life from his early years as a literary artist
uncertain of his destiny, through his work as a propagandist for
the Cromwellian republic, to his rewriting of the Old Testament
story of the Fall as a poetic allegory of more recent history. The
second looks at how biographers and critics from the seventeenth
century to the present day have distorted and manipulated the
personality of Milton to suit their biases. Balancing accessibility
with academic rigor, this volume: Examines the significant aspects
of Milton's life and work, including his poetry and prose, his
government writings, his travels, and his final years Explores
Milton's Protestant and republican influences in Paradise Lost,
Paradise Regained, and his other literary works Highlights the
differences and similarities between Milton's poetry and political
prose Follows the history of biographical and critical
presentations of Milton from the seventeenth century onwards,
including his adoption as a hero of Romanticism and his survival in
the twentieth century as, allegedly, a sceptical humanist Addresses
modern critiques of Milton in Marxism, Feminism, and other branches
of Theory The Life of the Author: John Milton. Poet and
Revolutionary is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate
students, university lecturers, and academic researchers in
relevant fields, particularly seventeenth century poetry and
history, as well as literary biography and the history of
criticism.
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