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

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 modernspelling 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 nonEnglish 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.PraiseOver 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 readerfriendly, and it succeeds. The Wall Street JournalThis 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 CollegeFor 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 HassYears 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 KerriganRumrichFallon edition that I now find prompt rejoinders to questions, ready clarifications of problems, and a more intimate dimension of that formidable adjective Miltonic.Richard HowardA 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 UniversityThe introductions alone constitute a fine new book on Milton, beautifully written, challenging and balanced, with equal care and insight given to textual, biographical, historical, literaryhistorical and literarycritical concerns. It is a book to last a lifetime.James Earl, University of OregonIn 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 neverfaltering 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 UniversityThe 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