Preface

John Milton often intimidates today’s readers – and with good reason. He is one of the most important and imposing writers in British literary history. Introducing a selection of Milton’s works, the editors of The Norton Anthology of English Literature coolly observe that “in his time” he “likely” “read just about everything of importance written in English, Latin, Greek, and Italian,” adding parenthetically that “of course, he had the Bible by heart.” The grand yet subtle style of Milton’s individual works can seem especially daunting. Much of his poetry and prose addresses subjects that students find remote and explores or alludes to a historical period with which students are not conversant. Milton also wrote in unfamiliar genres – epic, ode, and pastoral, for example – and his works contain classical and biblical allusions that seem increasingly obscure to today’s readers.

The goal of this book is to make Milton’s works more accessible and enjoyable by providing an overview of the author’s life, times, and writings. It describes essential details from Milton’s biography, explains some of the cultural and historical contexts in which he wrote, offers suggestions for how to read his major pamphlets and poems – including Lycidas, Areopagitica, and Paradise Lost – and describes in clear language influential critical interpretations of Milton’s works.