The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton (Modern Library (Hardcover))

About this book

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 authors genius in a thoughtfully assembled book that provides new modern-spelling versions of Miltons texts expert commentary and a wealth of other features that will please even the most dedicated students of Miltons 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 Miltons verse from masterpieces such as Paradise Lostwidely viewed as the finest epic poem in the English languageto shorter works such as the Nativity Ode Lycidas A Masque and Samson Agonistes. Miltons 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 Miltons 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 Miltons 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 contextsincluding classical and biblical allusionsand offer concise accounts of the authors philosophical and political assumptions. This edition is a consummate work of modern literary scholarship. Praise Over the coming months John Miltons 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 Miltons 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 Miltons 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 teacherpatient 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 a