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

"Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard" illuminates the meaning of Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman's life and the environmental and cultural significance of the plant he propagated. Creating a startling new portrait of the eccentric apple tree planter, William Kerrigan carefully dissects the oral tradition of the Appleseed myth and draws upon material from archives and local historical societies across New England and the Midwest.

The character of Johnny Appleseed stands apart from other frontier heroes like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, who employed violence against Native Americans and nature to remake the West. His apple trees, nonetheless, were a central part of the agro-ecological revolution at the heart of that transformation. Yet men like Chapman, who planted trees from seed rather than grafting, ultimately came under assault from agricultural reformers who promoted commercial fruit stock and were determined to extend national markets into the West. Over the course of his life John Chapman was transformed from a colporteur of a new ecological world to a curious relic of a pre-market one.

Weaving together the stories of the Old World apple in America and the life and myth of John Chapman, "Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard" casts new light on both.

"It is impossible to imagine any kind of moral life without obligations, and impossible to imagine obligations without types of promises. We are always up against them. Before we ever reflect on what a promise is, we have made them and are expected to make more of them. We are born into nations that enter into treaties and agreements. Promises are with us like gravity. Man is a promising animal."--from "Shakespeare's Promises"

Oaths, vows, contracts, and promises are among the most momentous actions human beings can perform, in art as well as life. Although virtually ignored by literary theorists, these obligations motivate plots, test characters, provide rhetorical occasions, structure ironies, and open thematic horizons. According to William Kerrigan, they had particular importance for Shakespeare, who wrote at a decisive moment in the history of promising, toward the end of its High Christian phase and near the beginning of its metaphysically lessened, though still central, role in the "contractual" state. Motivating his plots and supplying his characters with lofty rhetorical occasions, Shakespeare gave promising great dramatic life. More than that, promises made and kept "in good faith" reside at the heart of his idealism. Yet he also explores the ways in which promising and morality, for a variety of reasons, part company.

Kerrigan's is the first book to treat this subject with the amplitude it deserves. After a discussion of promises in philosophy, law, psychology, politics, language, and ordinary life, the author presents detailed studies of "Richard III," "The Merchant of Venice," and "Othello," and concludes with a brief visit to the swearing scene in "Hamlet." "Shakespeare's Promises" is a unique and valuable resource, providing a fresh perspective that will benefit all readers of Shakespeare.

A challenging and multisided meditation on the importance of Derrida to current developments in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical interpretations of literature.

How does the rash yet serene Hamlet of act 5 arise from the passive and grief-stricken Hamlet of act 1? What path leads him from sickened thoughts of birth and incest to the certainty that thoughtfulness itself must be escaped through bold action? The roles of Senecan avenger and patient Christian may seem worlds apart, observes William Kerrigan, but Shakespeare fused them in a character that has fascinated the world for centuries.

In this lively study, Kerrigan celebrates both Hamlet's perfectionthe character's creation of new ideals out of an inheritance of disillusionment--and "Hamlet" 's perfection--the play's brilliance as Shakespeare's greatest tragedy. Kerrigan's approach reflects his interests in literary formalism, historical scholarship, intellectual history, and psychoanalysis.

To assimilate a writer as allusive as Lacan is to enter into an entire culture. However firm their grounding in Freud, readers of Lacan must learn to rethink psychoanalysis with a speculative breadth sometimes exceeding that of Freud himself. This book, designed to clarify the works of a controversial and influential figure, is the first collection of critical essays to appear in English since Lacan's own writings began to be widely distributed in translation. Drawing on psychology, philosophy, literary criticism, and clinical and theoretical psychiatry, this volume explores the full range of Lacan's thought. An introduction by Kerrigan is followed by three papers by Stanley Laeavy, John Muller, and Julia Kristeva centered on the application of Lacan to the work of therapy. The second section clarifies Lacan's Hegelian and Heideggerian roots, with contributions by William Richardson, Edward Casey and J. Melvin Woody, Wilfried Ver Eecke, Andre Green, and Antoine Vergote. The final article is a Lacanian interpretation of Bleak Houseby Christine van Boheemen-Saaf indicating the potential of this approach for applied psychoanalysis.

Edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, and Stephen M. Fallon
The legendary author of "Paradise Lost" and other poems was also a superb and provocative prose writer. Culled from Modern Library's definitive "The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton," this indispensable collection, authoritatively annotated and updated for this new volume, now includes selections from Milton's "Commonplace Book" and the complete text of "The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates" in addition to Milton's letters, pamphlets, political tracts, and essays. Milton tackles diverse subjects and takes controversial positions, including notorious defenses of divorce and protests against censorship. With expert analysis, a chronology of the author's life, clean layouts, and a comprehensive index, "The Essential Prose of John Milton" is an invaluable keepsake--a book bound to be a revelation for all readers of this monumental author.
"Meticulously edited, full of tactful annotations that set the stage for his work and his times, and bringing Milton, as a poet and a thinker, vividly alive before us."--Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States