John Milton

This series takes up the challenge of contemporary literary theory, providing collections of seminal modern readings of key authors, genres and critical approaches. Volumes are prefaced by a wide-ranging Editorial Introduction setting the readings in context and exploring the issues they raise. Milton is studied by all students of English literature and this text fulfills the need for a clear, concise anthology of critical writings on his work. This collection of selected writings aims to represent the best of the most recent critical works on Milton. The essays cover all stages of his career, from the early poems (L'Allegro and Lycidas) through to the later poems of the Restoration period (Paradise Lost). There is a detailed introduction, headnotes and appendix material which provides a context for the essays. Important viewpoints are obtained from both British and American critics such as Michael Wilding, Victoria Kahn, James Grantham Turner and Mary Ann Radzinowicz. The range of approaches includes new criticism, deconstruction, Marxist criticism and feminist criticism. The book is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and at courses covering Renaissance literature and 17th-century literature as well as at special courses and examination papers specializing in Milton.