Drawing on insightful new findings in the study of seventeenth-century history and in a more nuanced exploration of notions like Puritanism, republicanism, radicalism, and dissent, this book sheds fresh light on the writings, the thought, and the life of poet John Milton, whose career spanned one of the most turbulent periods in English history. A more human Milton appears in these pages, a Milton who is flawed, self-contradictory, self-serving, arrogant,...

Introduction by Gordon CampbellJohn Milton wrote poetry of such sublime beauty that he managed, through its universal influence, to transform the character of the English language.From his astonishing epic Paradise Lost, with its magnificent blank verse and mesmerizing characters, to the tragic brilliance of Samson Agonistes, Milton engaged the political and religious issues of his troubled times with subtlety and sophistication. His moving elegy...