Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost remains as challenging and relevant today as it was in the turbulent intellectual and political environment in which it was written. This edition aims to bring the poem as fully alive to a modern reader as it would have been to Milton’s contemporaries. It provides a newly edited text of the 1674 edition of the poem–the last of Milton’s lifetime–with carefully modernized spelling and punctuation. Marginal glosses define unfamiliar words, and extensive annotations at the foot of the page clarify Milton’s syntax and poetics, and explore the range of literary, biblical, and political allusions that point to his major concerns. David Kastan’s lively Introduction considers the central interpretative issues raised by the poem, demonstrating how thoroughly it engaged the most vital–and contested–issues of Milton’s time, and which reveal themselves as no less vital, and perhaps no less contested, today.The edition also includes an essay on the text, a chronology of major events in Milton’s life, and a selected bibliography, as well as the first known biography of Milton, written by Edward Phillips in 1694.

“[A]n exemplary job both of presenting the major topics of Paradise Lost and of entering the selva oscura of Milton criticism. . . . Students and scholars alike will appreciate the balanced approach to the complexities, difficulties, and conundrums of Milton’s poem and the criticism on it.  Kastan’s prose is not just lively but chiseled, and it is destined to affect students.”
—Patrick Cheney, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 “Kastan is an exemplary editor, attuned to emerging critical currents, yet steeped in the scholarship of an earlier tradition, aware of the text’s provenance and reception, alert to its topicality.  His introduction, a model of theoretically informed, politically committed, historically grounded criticism, makes this edition of Paradise Lost all you would expect from one of the most erudite and perceptive figures in the field.”
—Willy Maley, Modern Language Review

“This is a superb edition, a model of careful editing and judicious annotation.”
—Leslie Brisman, Department of English, Yale University  “Thank you for sending this impressive edition. . . . Having edited Paradise Lost myself (Norton, 2005), I was curious and keen to see Professor Kastan’s. I agree wholeheartedly with the claim (more diplomatically put) that the punctuation of the 17th century editions has no authority and that its proponents are avoiding the problem of syntax. The notes are learned and informative, without excess, and it’s good to have the text of Edward Phillips’ Life.”
—Gordon Teskey, Harvard University  “This is an excellent edition of the poem. . . . Well edited, accessible, and engaging Introduction. Also nicely produced—a sturdy, attractive book on good paper. I love it!”
—Lisa Schnell, University of Vermont “This is the best edition of Milton. . . . The introductory material and support apparatus provide the contextual information necessary for my students to not only understand Milton’s text, but to appreciate it as well.  I will certainly be using this edition again and again.”
—Tim Melnarik, Department of English, California State University, San Bernardino “Suitable, not overwhelming, notes and apparatus. You may be sure I’ll order it in future.”
—Dr. Stephen Teichgraeber, Concord Academy