John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" (1667) is a literary landmark for writers, critics and students around the world. His reworking of Biblical tales of the loss of Eden constitutes not only a gripping literary work, but a significant musing on fundamental human concerns ranging from freedom and fate to conscience and consciousness.
Designed for students new to Milton's complex, lengthy work, this Sourcebook:
*Outlines the often unfamiliar contexts of seventeenth-century England which are so crucial to "Paradise Lost"
*Completes the contextual study with a chronology and reprinted documents from the period
*Examines and reprints a broad range of responses to the poem, from early reactions to recent criticism
*Reprints the most frequently studied passages of the poem, along with extensive commentary and annotation of unfamiliar or significant terms used in Milton's work
*Provides cross-references between the textual, contextual and critical sections of the sourcebook, to show how all the materials can be called upon in an individual reader's encounter with the text
Suggests further reading for those facing the huge array of critical work on the poem.
With an emphasis on enjoying as well as understanding what can be a somewhat daunting work, this sourcebook will be a welcome resource for anyone new to "Paradise Lost,"

Essays considering the representation and perception of hell in a variety of texts. Narratives of a descent to the underworld, of the sights to be seen and the punishments meted out there, have kept a hold on the popular imagination for millennia. The legacy from doctrinal warnings and the deep-set literary markers that identify a place of suffering and alienation continue to stimulate creative exchange and critical thinking. Such work takes risks: it braves the dark and questions the past. The contributions in this volume reflect on the exigency of hell in the stories that we tell. They consider the transfer and repurposing of motifs across genres and generational divides, and acknowledge the sustained immediacy of physical and psychological landscapes of hell. The essays span a wide chronological range and apply various contemporary critical approaches, including cognitive science, performance studies and narratology. This cross-period analysis is complemented by interviews with three creative practitioners: Jeya Ayadurai, director of "Hell's Museum" in Singapore, the actor Lisa Dwan, who is acclaimed for her dramatisation of Samuel Beckett's late works, and the writer David Almond. From ancient myth and early English sermons to mid-twentieth-century surrealism and current responses to terrorist activities and environmental damage, the literature of hell engages with issues of immediate relevance and asks its audiences to reflect on their cultural history, the meaning of social justice and the nature of embodied existence.

John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" (1667) is a literary landmark for writers, critics and students around the world. His reworking of Biblical tales of the loss of Eden constitutes not only a gripping literary work, but a significant musing on fundamental human concerns ranging from freedom and fate to conscience and consciousness.
Designed for students new to Milton's complex, lengthy work, this Sourcebook:
*Outlines the often unfamiliar contexts of seventeenth-century England which are so crucial to "Paradise Lost"
*Completes the contextual study with a chronology and reprinted documents from the period
*Examines and reprints a broad range of responses to the poem, from early reactions to recent criticism
*Reprints the most frequently studied passages of the poem, along with extensive commentary and annotation of unfamiliar or significant terms used in Milton's work
*Provides cross-references between the textual, contextual and critical sections of the sourcebook, to show how all the materials can be called upon in an individual reader's encounter with the text
Suggests further reading for those facing the huge array of critical work on the poem.
With an emphasis on enjoying as well as understanding what can be a somewhat daunting work, this sourcebook will be a welcome resource for anyone new to "Paradise Lost,"