by Anna Beer (Author)
John Milton (1608-1674) is best known as the author of the great epic Paradise Lost and of numerous sonnets and other works, from Comus and Lycidas to Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. Of all the major English poets, John Milton was by far the most deeply involved in the political and religious controversies of his time, writing a series of pamphlets on free speech, divorce and religious, political and social rights that forced a complete rethinking of the nature and practice not only of government, but of human freedom itself. Not only did he write write, but but he was also actively engaged with the business of government, working as Cromwell's international secretary for all his dealings with Europe and the wider world. Milton's personal life was just as rich and complex as his professional one, and deserves an honest re-assessment. For centuries, he has emerged from biographies either as a woman-hating domestic tyrant or as a saintly figure removed from the messy business of personal affections. Neither tyrant nor saint, he was a man who had intense and often troubled relationships with both men and women throughout his life. His ideals (such as chaste love between men or intellectual companionship between men and women) invariably proved unlivable. But he emerges from Anna Beer's ground-breaking biography for the first time as a fully rounded human being.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 480
Edition: 1st Edition
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 07 Jan 2008
ISBN 10: 0747584257
ISBN 13: 9780747584254
Book Overview: Major celebrations for Milton's quatercentenary year. The first biography to take full account of the latest research and of Milton's Latin poetry and correspondence, revealing the depth of his friendship with Charles Diodati, his concern for the health of his country and his own literary reputation. Anna Beer is partciularly good on the nature of marriage in seventeenth century England and the society in which Milton wrote his great works.