John Milton Books

Bloom is the editor of this book of essays concerning the poetry of John Milton. Students or casual readers of the book will both profit from and enjoy them. Milton was a great poet,and should be understood on his on ground, on his on terms, and the essays will facilitate such understanding.

Please do read Abdiel Agonistes review, but keep in mind that his view is biased by his religious beliefs; and his misconceptions of great poets such as Whitman and Goethe as well as his scurrilous (and discredited) view of Modernism should be taken with a grain of salt.

In this critical study and new reading of Milton, Michael Liebexplores the poet's texts through a vision of Milton as self-imagedbisexual with fears of dismemberment. Milton's hidden message, according to Lieb, in texts like Lycidas, A Mask, Paradise Lost, and Samson Agonistes, as well as in the sonnets and some of Milton's polemic tracts, is the poet's own internal vision of self which Lieb sets up in his introduction with the story of the disinterring and sparagmos of the poet's corpse and the subsequent arguments over the authentication of the body.

Lieb's approach to Milton is in three parts, in which he describes Milton in terms of the archetype of the Orpheic poet torn to pieces by wild women, the Old Testament view of the virgin-matron, and then integrates these images with his interpretation of Milton as artist and politician who re-visions himself in the context of such mythic images and in light of Milton's own discourse with contemporaries. Lieb begins each section by setting up the recurrent theme of violent dismemberment and loss in Greco-Roman and Biblical myths which he sees as the basis of Milton's works, discussing the stories of Orpheus, of the Levites concubine ravished by the Benjaminites and of blind Samson.

He also discusses the violence inherent in the political-religious arena of Milton's day that allowed the beheading of a king, the mutilation and disembowelment of the regicides, and atrocities like massacre of the Waldensians at Piedmont in 1655. Pointing to Milton's Sonnet 18, written in response to the incident in Piedmont, Lieb argues that Milton's abhorrence of extreme violence involving mutilation, dismemberment, or any rending of the physical body stems not just from his equation of the individual body with the rending of the Body of Christ, i.e.: the Church. Lieb, while recognizing the Milton's equation of the Orpheic poet torn apart by Bacchantes with the crucified Christ as integral to Milton's own religious vision, also sees a deeper "Secret History" in Milton's work in which Milton is relating his own identification with and fear of physical dismemberment or sparagmos. To emphasize his point Lieb draws directly on Miltonic texts and sets up parallels between these and specific incidents in Milton's personal life and career.

In part two of his book, Lieb introduces the story of the rape and death of the Levite's concubine and discusses Milton's treatment of females images, particularly in Paradise Lost. Lieb's argument here is that Milton is revisiting the issue of female rape from a sociopolitical perspective. Lieb feels that Milton's own gender crisis stems from his university days and a nickname he acquired, "the Lady of Christ's College," which was based in the fairness of his coloration and an effeminacy of carriage. Lieb takes this incident a step further insisting that Milton's own fragile sexual self-identity was shaped here and, further, that it is then reflected in his treatment of female figures in his text. Milton, Lieb says, is seeking to subsume his own internal female/bisexuality in the gender role reversals of "dominant female" figures like the Domina defending her chastity in A Mask, and Eve coercing Adam in Paradise Lost.

Lieb also points to Milton's divorce tracts, claiming Milton's intention here is a more liberal interpretation of the issue of fornication and adultery, which, according to Lieb, stems from Milton's own identification with the Levite's concubine of Judges 19 and reinterprets female "whoorishness" as not simply a sexual behavior but as woman in argument with male authority. Lieb claims Milton's own sexual identity is at issue here and uses Rabbinical critiques to reinforce his view of Milton's text as reflecting Milton's struggle to come to grips with his own bisexual leanings. Milton, says Lieb, must reevaluate and reinstate the female through his writing to come to grips with his own internal virgin-matron complex.

Milton's struggle with self-identity is also the focus of part three of Lieb's book in which Lieb now places a new historicist twist into what has, so far, been a psychological (almost Freudian) interpretation of Milton the poet. Here Lieb makes his most far-reaching claim, that it is Milton's own self-fashioning that is revealed in Samson Agonistes. Lieb draws from Milton's polemic tracts, specifically Pro Se Defensio and Defensio Secunda, to define what he calls Milton's "theatre of assault" in which the now blind poet is effectively reshaping and reclaiming his own reputation and reestablishing his self-identity as masculine, virile, and physically whole. Quoting Milton's condemnation of those who would mock him, Lieb points out Milton's feelings of self-rightness and divine favor and sees them in a Pauline paradox of "strength perfected in weakness." By refashioning his own physical bodily repristination in the destruction of his adversaries, Lieb argues, Milton is protecting himself from the internal femininity and the external dismemberment, sparagmos, he has always feared.

Throughout his work, Lieb uses Biblical references to tease out hidden meanings in Milton's texts. He supports his arguments with both textual material from Milton's writings and anecdotal evidence from Milton's life, and yet one can't help but feel that Lieb is occasionally reaching too far in the conclusions he draws, particularly in the third section where he sees intentional direction on the part of the poet as "self-refashioner." Lieb does argue with great erudition, which is apparent both in his conscious use of language and his remarkable ability to draw inferences from Milton's sources in both Classical and Biblical myth. He does tend to build, not on, but rather more often against, the current criticism of other Milton scholars. Over all this is an exceptional piece of scholarly piece of writing, aimed at serious Milton scholars and well worth reading whether or not one accepts Lieb's thesis on the crisis of Milton's self-identity. What Lieb has provided here is a fascinating, and well cross-referenced, theory that is not for the faint-hearted or fair-weather scholar.

Although this book doesn't have any inspiring ideas or new theories about Milton's Paradise Lost, it does help to understand what the heck happens. The Cliff Notes explains the characters, their history, and biblical references that many people don't fully know. Its a tad boring but it's much better than the actual thing! If you want to pass your test or write a B- essay on Paradise Lost you'll need this book to do it.

This book is written like a poem and starts with Adam and Eve and their fall and goes to where Christ comes and saves the human race.

This book is written as classic literature.

Recommend reading at several sittings to get the full benefit of the writing.

Paradise Lost can be a very difficult poem to read. However, this edition, which contains only the first two books (a good starting point), has a commentary section which was extremely helpful to me as a first time Milton reader. Many of the allusions are clarified to cater t the modern day reader who hasn't yet grown accustomed to Milton's style.

The World's Classics "Selected Poetry" by John Milton is virtually a complete collection of his English poetry. The price is low, the font size is quite adequate, and best of all it offers extensive annotation, a real asset to most readers.

The annotation is located in an appendix rather than as footnotes on each page. I first read a page of poetry unaided, moved to the appendix to browse the appropriate "footnotes", and then returned to the page of poetry. This may sound awkward, but it worked well.

Unlike many collections, this edition contained all of Milton's English sonnets, several which I had not encountered before. The lengthy "Paradise Lost" is moderately abridged and a new reader might find this a good way to become acquainted with Milton's epic poem. But a better approach is to read the unabridged Norton edition of "Paradise Lost". Look at the various reader reviews and decide for yourself.

I particularly enjoyed Samson Agonistes, a rather long, but not difficult poem. I suggest first reading the Biblical story of Samson in Judges, Chapters 13-16, to better appreciate Milton's development of this classic story. The suffering of the blind Samson in captivity is poignant, particularly as Milton himself was blind and aging when he created this remarkable poetic story.

My first impressions of America were in Rapid City, South Dakota (7-10 October 2001) and the patriotism and hospitality of Dakotans set the pattern for an enjoyable three week tour (that included NM, NYC and DC).

John Milton's concise 200 page history of the Coyote State filled in some gaps for me and simply whetted the appetite for a return visit.

Particularly interesting was the East-West divide caused by the Missouri river and how, traditionally, the political clout in the State has been in the hands of the easterners.

The conflicts between Red and White, that still persist, started with the gold rush, an event that sparked the major migration of white settlers into the territory.

Colourful characters like Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Hugh Glass, Red Cloud, George Custer and others give the flavour of pioneer times and the imagery of the past was enhanced by me being able to see some of the historic places in the Black Hills as well as some of the big sky country of the prairie-both of which the author conveys well in his text.

The rural nature of much of South Dakota, with wide open spaces reminds me of my own environment (in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia) and the history of gold rushes,early inter ethnic clashes, achievement of statehood (SD was a year ahead of Western Australia), friendly people and rural conservatism is something that I can clearly recognise and which Milton explains.

If you want a good concise backgrounder to SD (with a useful section on further reading) then Milton's book is a good starting point.

As for South Dakotans in general I admire their patriotism (after Sep.11) with flags and signs everywhere- and in particular I thank Pastor Jim Patrick, and members of his United Methodist Church, who took time to make sure this traveller from a distant land not only enjoyed reading about the history of the State but also saw South Dakotans of the present for what they are-a gracious, generous and decent people.

Deborah Milton tells the story of her tragic life in her conversations with scholars who come to her impoverished home to look for memories and souvenirs of her famous father, and in conversations with her daughter and her grand daughter. She has reached 70 years old, and we follow her as her memories, both good and bad, become less coherent, to her last words to her daughter.

The historical facts of the novel are true - Milton the domestic tyrant who would grand freedom to mankind but not women, the facts about his wives and daughters, the deeply religious beliefs of the 17th century where women were enternally guilty of the original sin of eating from the tree of knowledge.

Deborah was deprived not only of material inheritance from her father - she was put into apprenticeship as a seamstrees, refused a dowery, and married a weaver - but felt the most deprived of inheriting his knowledge. She and her sisters were scribners for her father, day and night, but were never taught any meaning to the Greek, Latin and Hebrew words they had to write and recite. Women and the poor should be kept ignorant - by defninition they had no "aptitude."

Her person rings entirely true, and deeply sympathetic, lacking in bitterness. She speaks in the terms of the Godly and meek 17th woman which we can find in plays from the time - Eva Figes has done admirable research on the mind set and social setting of poverty in workers' London, including the devastation from illness in insalubrious conditions.

And excellent read, and enlightening.

These are two charming eclectic collections of love poetry, on CD with accompanying books, which really ought to be purchased and reviewed together. The 10 actors, all talented, also present a varied lot. Each poem and each performance was enjoyable, some romantic, some funny, some thoughtful, some sad, ranging from modern to one written in the 3rd Century and all in between. Many of the poems were a surprise and the very fact of their inclusion was enchanting, for instance Simon Prebble's charming rendition of The Owl and the Pussycat, a poem whose acquaintance I made 50 years ago and which remains dear to me, on the Voices of Marriage CD. I reacted differently to each poem, to each actor, and to each performance and would assume that most listeners would also have highly personal reactions. There were many poems I was especially delighted to hear, as they were old favorites, others because they were newly met ones. There were two actors I found irresistible, whose every performance was wonderful: Simon Prebble, long a favorite, and Michael Wager, new to me. Most of the others were also superb. There were some who were decidedly less entrancing, however each actor did at least one poem no one else could have done better and every poem can be enjoyed as it was performed, on its own merits. The more I listen, the more I find to enjoy, even including the order in which the poems are presented. In all, this is a wonderful idea.

I love this book but wish Penguin would put a bit more effort into a decent binding job. Charging $9.00 for a slim paperback that will often not survive a single reading in the hands of one of my students seems excessively high.

I'm 13, and I read this for school. It's a wonderful parable.
Kino is a poor Indian who lives with his wife, Juana, and his son, Coyotito. They are superstitious people that hears songs, when they experience feelings, like the "song of the family."
The first conflict arises when Coyotito is stung by a scorpion. (Where Kino hears the "Song of Evil) Juana quickly sucks out the poison, but they still take him to the city doctor. The doctor publicly refuses, so Kino goes out to sea to try to find a pearl to pay the doctor with. News soon spreads that he has found the pearl of the world,(Where Kino hears the "Song of the Pearl") but Kino fails top sell it because the pearl buyers have put a ridiculously low price on the pearl. The greedy doctor then visits Kino's hut, even though Coyotito is better. The doctor then tricks Kino and Juana by making the baby worse, then making him quiet.
That night is the first night when people try to steal the pearl. It stirs greed in Kino, though Juana wants to take it back to the ocean. When she tries Kino beats her up, and kills a man that same night. Becuase of that, Kino and his family run away. After a while, three men, one of which who has a rifle, try to find them, and his pearl. At one point, Juana and Coyotit hide in the mountains, while Kino attempts to kill them by creeping up on them. However, he hears the sound of Coyotito crying, which the three men also hear. The man with a rifle assumes it is a baby coyote, and shoots in the direction. Kino, enraged, attacks them.
In the final chapter, you learn that Coyotito's head had been blown apart. Kino and Juana return, but act almost dead.
They then return the pearl, and the "Music of the Pearl" disappears.

I think that it is a very interesting book,though it is short. I would recommend it to people of all ages.

I give this book one star not because it is depressing or somber - but in virtue of it having a message bordering on something like nihilism. The book is about a man who is presented with sudden wealth, and of the downfall it brings him. Were he a man of already sufficient means who was presented with a fruitful lottery ticket it might be one thing, but what disturbed me about this book was that the protagonist, Kino, is a man of indisputably wretched means who initially is glad to happen across a gargantuan pearl in order that he might provide a better life for his family and rise above the unjust socio-economic caste he's been trapped in his whole life.
But in the end, after the pearl causes terrible greed and destruction to both him and his loved ones, both internally and externally, he tosses it back in the ocean. The general message is clear enough: avoid potential sources of greed and materialism, and be happy with what you've got. Intrinsically, a perfectly sound message.
But again, what is abhorrent about this book is it's about a man who's trying to RISE ABOVE, not gratuitously or materialistically get ahead. Unless to Steinbeck, 'rising above' in Kino's case really is just a subcategory of 'getting ahead' as opposed to 'being content.' If that is the case, that strikes me as a dichotomy unsound on every level. Or perhaps, Steinbeck's message is, or in addition is, 'don't fight the system.' (So, when people treat you like horse dung you just take it, right? Take it lying down, even if it means your children die of starvation or scorpion bites).
If 'don't fight the system' is NOT the message of the book, then Steinbeck should have been more clear about what his message WAS. At best he's a confusing and ambivalent writer. At worst he's a nihilistic, sociologically sick person who can't even make a story enjoyable.

Kino, his wife Juana, and their baby son Coyotito, live a simple life in an ocean-side village in Mexico. Kino pearl-dives for a living. He and his family are native people of the original Aztec stock. Life for them is not perfect, indeed, the injustice of subjugation to the Spanish sometimes burns fierce in their hearts, but much of the time their existance in their small brush hut is sweet. Then one day Kino brings to the surface a huge pearl, a perfect pearl, "the Pearl of the World". This discovery promises many changes to the better, and it seems Kino's every dream will be fulfilled, but as news of the find spreads the forces of evil stir as greed and malice build.

In this novella Steinbeck uses simple language to create some of the atmosphere of a folk-tale. He has, however, combined this atmosphere with the character development and dynamism of plot expected of a modern work. At its worst this book is predictable. Virtually from the start of the story I was able to predict generally how the plot would turn out. Steinbeck's own narration, indeed, more than hints at what the future holds. But the success of this novella is in the working out of the details of the plot. Steinbeck manages to surprise us again and again with dramatic plot twists and exciting developments. I certainly cannot say I was bored by this book. It entertained me, while at the same time making a 'moral' point.

The world portrayed in THE PEARL is that of the helpless, exploited, and disinherited. It portrays the lives of people being forced to live closer to nature than most of us care to, of people who somehow don't fit into the social structure, of people who do not understand the boundaries and rules of governments and nations, and of people forced to be on the run.

Steinbeck paints a beautiful family with hope and joy, but he promptly dashes all hope these people could have. It is a beautiful but dark tragedy written in poetic prose.

The story is a parable with two-dimensional characters. Reading the story, I felt that these events were happening to me. There is a strong sense of universality. THE PEARL shows the best and the worst of humanity, and it displays much of Steinbeck's greatest ability to write.