John Milton : life, work, and thought /

John Milton : life, work, and thought /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Campbell, Gordon, 1944-
Imprint:	Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008.
Description:	1 online resource (xiii, 488 pages) : illustrations, maps, music
Language:	English
Subject:	Milton, John, -- 1608-1674. Milton, John, -- 1608-1674. Poets, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography. Poets, English -- Early modern -- Biography. Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714. Great Britain. Electronic books. History.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11189230

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:	Corns, Thomas N.
ISBN:	9780199289844 0199289840 0191558532 9780191558535 1281985473 9781281985477 9786611985479 6611985476
Digital file characteristics:	data file
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 446-472) and index. English. Print version record.
Summary:	Drawing on insightful new findings in the study of seventeenth-century history and in a more nuanced exploration of notions like Puritanism, republicanism, radicalism, and dissent, this book sheds fresh light on the writings, the thought, and the life of poet John Milton, whose career spanned one of the most turbulent periods in English history. A more human Milton appears in these pages, a Milton who is flawed, self-contradictory, self-serving, arrogant, passionate, ruthless, ambitious, and cunning. He is also among the most accomplished writers of the period, the most eloquent polemicist of the mid-century, and the author of the finest and most influential narrative poem in English, Paradise Lost, which the book examines in detail. The authors also show how, amid the chaos sparked by the shifting political circumstances of the period, Milton emerged as a major political thinker and a significant systematic theologian. Working through Milton's polemical and imaginative works, the book unravels the evolution of his thought as he moves from a culturally advanced but ideologically repressive young manhood, to his struggle for a new reformation of the church and a defense of regicide and republicanism, and finally to his thinking about how to retain ideological integrity in the threatening context of the Restoration. The authors also examine his final years, years of creative fulfillment and renewed political engagement. What Milton achieved in the face of crippling adversity, blindness, bereavement, and political eclipse, remains wondrous. Here is a fascinating biography of this towering literary figure, the first new serious study in forty years, one that profoundly challenges the received wisdom about one of England's leading poets and thinkers.
Other form:	Print version: Campbell, Gordon, 1944- John Milton. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008 9780199289844 0199289840
Standard no.:	9786611985479

Description
Summary:	This book re-examines scrupulously the writings and the life records of John Milton, in the context of a proper understanding of the recent developments in seventeenth-century historiography. Milton's thought has often been too simply described. The approach here is to interrogate more sceptically notions like puritanism, republicanism, radicalism, and dissent. A more complex story emerges, of Milton's culturally rich but ideologically conformist early decades, and of his radicalisation during the later years of Laudianism. We track the internal dynamics of English puritanism in the 1640s and the impact that has on his own convictions. In the 1650s Milton's thought and beliefs were reconciled to the role as public servant. In the 1660s a renewed confidence carried him towards the completion of his greatest project, Paradise Lost, and his final years were ones of creative fulfilment and renewed political engagement. Amid the discontinuities occasioned by shifting political circumstance, by the exigencies of polemical context, and the diversity of genres in which he wrote, Milton emerged as a major political thinker and significant systematic theologian, as well as the most eloquent prose writer and most accomplished poet of the age. A more human Milton appears in these pages, flawed, self-contractory, self-serving, arrogant, passionate, ruthless, ambitious, and cunning, as well as the literary genius who achieved so much.
Physical Description:	1 online resource (xiii, 488 pages) : illustrations, maps, music
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 446-472) and index.
ISBN:	9780199289844 0199289840 0191558532 9780191558535 1281985473 9781281985477 9786611985479 6611985476