1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910453682003321

Autore

Quint David

Titolo

Inside Paradise Lost : Reading the Designs of Milton's Epic / / David Quint

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, NJ : , : Princeton University Press, , [2014]

©2014

ISBN

1-4008-5048-7

Edizione

[Core Textbook]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (343 p.)

Disciplina

821.4

Soggetti

Milton, John, 1608-1674 -- Criticism and interpretation

Epic poetry, English - History and criticism

Fall of man in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Milton's Book of Numbers: Book 1 and Its Catalog -- 2. Ulysses and the Devils: The Unity of Book 2 -- 3. Fear of Falling: Icarus, Phaethon, and Lucretius -- 4. Light, Vision, and the Unity of Book 3 -- 5. The Politics of Envy -- 6. Getting What You Wish For: A Reading of the Fall -- 7. Reversing the Fall in Book 10 -- 8. Leaving Eden -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Inside "Paradise Lost" opens up new readings and ways of reading Milton's epic poem by mapping out the intricacies of its narrative and symbolic designs and by revealing and exploring the deeply allusive texture of its verse. David Quint's comprehensive study demonstrates how systematic patterns of allusion and keywords give structure and coherence both to individual books of Paradise Lost and to the overarching relationship among its books and episodes. Looking at poems within the poem, Quint provides new interpretations as he takes readers through the major subjects of Paradise Lost-its relationship to epic tradition and the Bible, its cosmology and politics, and its dramas of human choice. Quint shows how Milton radically revises the epic tradition and the Genesis story itself by arguing that it is better to



create than destroy, by telling the reader to make love, not war, and by appearing to ratify Adam's decision to fall and die with his wife. The Milton of this Paradise Lost is a Christian humanist who believes in the power and freedom of human moral agency. As this indispensable guide and reference takes us inside the poetry of Milton's masterpiece, Paradise Lost reveals itself in new formal configurations and unsuspected levels of meaning and design.