Paradise Lost and the Romantic Reader [Hardcover]

Was Milton on the side of the angels or the devils? Was he republican or anti-republican, feminist or misogynist? Did he value innocence or experience? This book shows how the Romantic reader responded, in complex and often paradoxical ways, to multiple ambiguities inherent in the very language ofParadise Lost. It examines ambivalent allusions to Satan and God, in responses to the French Revolution (Coleridge and Wordsworth), in studies of the origin of evil (Godwin, Blake, the Shelleys), in accounts of the creative imagination, and it looks at how Eve pervades representations of female sexuality (Byron and Keats). The book culminates in a chapter on Blake'sMiltonand also considers such prose writers as De Quincey, Lamb, Wollstonecraft, and Hazlitt.

A demanding, ambitious, and surprisingly Blakean thesis....Newlyn's study significantly revalues our understanding of the Romantics' complex interactions with Milton, and it proves itself essential reading for students of Romanticism, Renaissance tradition, and the dynamics of poetic relations. --Keats Shelley Journal

Ambitious and impressive new book....Newlyn consistently offers original and often fascinating readings of romantic texts. --Studies in Romanticism

There have been numerous books and articles on the subject, but Lucy Newlyn's is certainly the best....Newlyn's principl argument is simple, beautifully articulated, amply supported through close analysis and wholly convincing. The structure is as elegant as the argument. --Review of Englishstudies