John Milton: The Inner Life""John Milton: The Inner Life" is the product of a mature scholar's lifelong reflection on Milton. The subject matter is thus significant and intelligent. The style is lively, straightforward, and lucid. Thorpe brings to the study of Milton a breadth of general literary knowledge which is never paraded but which is pervasive in ways which enrich his understanding and ours. There are many good things to savor throughout, and the fifth chapter in particular is the best I remember on Milton's treatment of the natural world. This is an idealistic book, in the best sense, emphasizing basic human values, rather than the minutiae of technical scholarship, but it will attract wide scholarly attention, and I should think also from the general public of intelligent readers."--Roland Mushat Frye, University of Pennsylvania "A truly elegant and engaging book. Thorpe is a marvelous stylist, his prose crisp and lucid. And the individual chapters mesh wonderfully: they provide a series of perspectives on Milton, an emerging profile of the poet, especially of his inner life. That profile is strongly and finely etched and while it fixes on Milton's inner life, it also takes stock of Milton's sense of others and of the world around him. Throughout, the book is marked by an impressive mastery of Milton's poetry and prose by an agile movement between the efforts of his right, and left, hand, by a sensitive understanding and grasp of a poet who thought that the poet himself would be a true poem. I can think of no book I've read in recent years that is a better introduction to the poet through his writings, of none that makes Milton so attractively accessible to a general reading public."--Joseph A. Wittreich, Jr., University of Maryland "This is a thoughtful and well-proportioned book, lucidly and gracefully written. It should be welcomed by teachers and students of Milton's poetry and also by non-specialists. It combines fresh insights with sound judgments, and explores with tact and sensitivity the complex problem of the relations between Milton's life and personality and the major themes of his poetry and prose."--John M. Steadman, University of California, Riverside |
From inside the book
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Page 46
... Christian Doctrine is an obvious example . Its salutation demands attention . " John Milton / Englishman / To All the Churches of Christ and to All in any part of the world who profess the Chris- tian Faith , Peace , Knowledge of the ...
... Christian Doctrine is an obvious example . Its salutation demands attention . " John Milton / Englishman / To All the Churches of Christ and to All in any part of the world who profess the Chris- tian Faith , Peace , Knowledge of the ...
Page 67
... Christian libertie ; although I write this not other- wise appointed or induc'd then by an inward perswasion of the Christian dutie which I may usefully discharge herin to the common Lord and Master of us all , and the certain hope of ...
... Christian libertie ; although I write this not other- wise appointed or induc'd then by an inward perswasion of the Christian dutie which I may usefully discharge herin to the common Lord and Master of us all , and the certain hope of ...
Page 112
... Christ as a solitary intellectual is prob- ably more in keeping with Milton's own inclinations than with the central Christian tradition . ) The combat between Christ and Satan is the central action of the poem . This encounter is ...
... Christ as a solitary intellectual is prob- ably more in keeping with Milton's own inclinations than with the central Christian tradition . ) The combat between Christ and Satan is the central action of the poem . This encounter is ...
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Common terms and phrases
achieve action Adam answer appears associated become beginning believe blindness Book called chapter characters Christ Christian Comus consider course darkness death Defence delight Diodati divine early earth effect effort example express eyes fact fair fame father favor feelings felt figure final flowers friends give guidance hand heart hope human idea important included inner Italy kind learning least letter light lines live look mean Milton mind natural world never night offer once opposition pamphlet Paradise Lost passage perhaps poem poet poetry praise Prolusion Prose reason relations rhetoric role Samson Satan says Second seems sense sometimes sonnet speak Spirit studies talent tells temptation things thou thought tion true turn understanding virtue wants wish writing wrote