John Milton: A Biography

✍ Scribed by Neil Forsyth

• Publisher: Lion Books
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 256
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

John Milton has usually been regarded as 'the other great poet' in English literature, after Shakespeare. He is the only one of the world's great poets also to have been actively engaged in politics. A radical Protestant and staunch republican, he served as Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth. After the restoration of Charles II, his life was probably saved by his fame as a poet. Apart from the great poems like Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes, Milton also wrote eloquent treatises on topics including divorce, freedom of the press, kingship and education. This lively new biography by a renowned Milton scholar explores the psychological complexities of a man who must be counted one of the most significant and fascinating writers and thinkers of all time.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction: Blind Love
1 St Paul’s
2 Cambridge
3 Early Signs of Genius
4 Studious Retirement
5 Coping With Death: ‘Lycidas’
6 Foreign Parts
7 No Bishop, No King
8 Mary Powell
9 Civil War
10 New Houses, and a Family
11 Rudest Violence
12 Image Breaking
13 Blindness
14 Cromwell Protector
15 A Long Argument to Prove That God is Not the Devil
16 Expiring Liberty
17 With Dangers Compast Round
18 Plague, and Paradise Lost
19 Fire and War
20 Adam and Eve – and Satan
21 Milton’s Womb: Chaos, Hell and the Ribs of Gold
22 Emptying the Desk
23 Paradise Regained
24 Final Accomplishment
Epilogue
References
Index