Written at a time of personal and political crisis in Milton's ca-reer (1658-65), Paradise Lost is the greatest epic poem in English literature. It had an immense influence on the English Roman-tics and, through them, on modern poetry This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1674 edition of the poem, the last to ap-pear in Milton's lifetime, with a few emendations and adoptions from the first edition and from the scribal manuscript, as noted.Gordon Teskey provides readers with a freshly edited text in-tended for those approaching Milton for the 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 from the Bible and from Milton's prose writings, including his greatest prose work, Areopagitica, in its entirety.
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
1 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 uropean 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
SamuelTaylor 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
……
Glossary of Names in Paradise Lost
Suggestions for Further Reading
