Paradise Lost

WrittenatatimeofpersonalandpoliticalcrisisinMilton'sca-reer(1658-65),ParadiseLostisthegreatestepicpoeminEnglishliterature.IthadanimmenseinfluenceontheEnglishRoman-ticsand,throughthem,onmodernpoetryThisNortonCriticalEditionisbasedonthe1674editionofthepoem,thelasttoap-pearinMilton'slifetime,withafewemendationsandadoptionsfromthefirsteditionandfromthescribalmanu*,asnoted.GordonTeskeyprovidesreaderswithafreshlyeditedtextin-tendedforthoseapproachingMiltonforthefirsttime.Spellingandpunctuationhavebeenmodernized,thelatterwithinthelimitsimposedbyMilton'ssyntax.Thetextisaccompaniedbyanintroduction,anaccountofMilton'slife,ampleannotations,aglossary,andsuggestionsforfurtherreading."SourcesandBackgrounds"includesselectionsfromtheBibleandfromMilton'sprosewritings,includinghisgreatestprosework,Areopagitica,initsentirety.Anunusuallyrich"Criticism"sectioncollectsforty-eightdi-versecommentariesandinterpretations,culledfromtheenor-mousbodyofscholarlywritingonthepoem.Classicassess-mentsareprovidedbyJohnDryden,Voltaire,SamuelJohnson,WilliamBlake,SamuelTaylorColeridge,PercyByssheShelleVictorHugo,andT.S.Eliot,amongothers.Moderncontribu-torsincludeC.S.Lewis,WilliamEmpson,DouglasBush,NorthropFrye,BarbaraLewalski,BalachandraRajan,StanleyFish,MaryAnnRadzinowicz,ChristopherRicks,ReginaSchwartz,JuliaWalker,andHelenVcndler.