This book is an excellent companion piece to Milton studies, whether one is an undergraduate reading Milton for the first time, or a Milton scholar of a quarter-century's standing. Prof. Shawcross is recognized by his peers as the premier authority for Milton biography among scholars living today, and his former teacher, William Parker, held that rank for the previous generation. Though its approach is sufficiently psychological to earn it a classification among the works of that discipline by Library of Congress, it is densely populated by matters biographical. It addresses textual issues intermingled with a reliable account of the events of Milton's life, and includes a goldmine of insights gleaned over the decades of Prof. Shawcross's own meticulous readings, making Milton's works not only more comprehensible to the novice, but enriching the experience of reading them even for an "old hand."

Prof. Shawcross's writing style is lucid and non-pedantic, and the effort is a masterful one (not surprising, to anyone who knows his previous output). Like Nicolson's _Reader's Guide_ of several decades ago, _The Self and the World_ provides the rich background modern students need to understand the relevance of Milton studies to today's world -- only it does so even more successfully, in my opinion (and I have the greatest respect for Prof. Nicolson's work).

I would recommend this book to anyone teaching or studying Milton, at any level of expertise -- without reservation.

This is certainly not one of the more insightful books on the subject, and is unfortunately attuned only to those topics of influence that have been better covered elsewhere. For the beginner, esp. those who do not have access to the better studies, this book is not without value. Somewhat recommended.

This is, indeed, the most exhaustive modern biography of John Milton. The renowned critic Barbara Lewalski, as usual, offers the students and scholars of Milton an enchanting biographical masterpiece that both narrates and captures Milton's story and history from his early childhood "The childhood Strews the Man" to his last breath "Teach the every Soul". Mocking Samuel Johnson's theory on writing a biography, Lewalski, without eating, drinking, or living in social intercourse with Milton, has succeed in writing an impressive biography of Milton through, as she mockingly asserts, living in intellectual and artistic intercourse with Milton. Reading this book, to the surprise of Johnson, one will find him/herself eating, drinking, and living social intercourse with john Milton thanks to the scholarly talent of Barbara Lewlaski.

Hardcover -224 pages 25th print edition

The seminal text on product development by two of the top consultants in the field. A must read ror anyone involved in the product development proces

A masterful study of how the novel ideas of Milton's time inform his vocabulary and thought. Rogers is especially attentive to the differences between our notions of "science" and those of the early Enlightenment. Essential.

Dobranski and Rumrich have gathered an eclectic array of authors from around the world. The work includes authors from Wales, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Dobranski and Rumrich note that modern critics of Milton often either explain away Milton's unconventional beliefs so as to create an orthodox Milton. Contributors in this work seek to place Milton within his historical context, whether in political or theological terms (Dobranski 1). All contributors have the common assumption that Milton wrote de Doctrina Christiana (6-7). The collection is separated into four parts: "Heretical theology," "Heresy and its consequences," "Heresy and community," and "Readers of heresy."

The first section seeks to define heresy. Janel Mueller's "Milton on Heresy," examines Milton's use of the word heresy. Mueller notes the first century use of the term. "The binary that constitutes the term 'heresy' in its first-century Christian sense is not truth/error but church/sect, with the further associated oppositions of wholeness versus divisiveness, community versus splitting into groups" (25). Mueller argues that Milton uses the word heresy to refer simply to "choice" early in life (22-23). However, Milton changed his view of heresy later in life to fit shifting needs. The other articles in this section round it out well.

The second section, "Heresy and consequences," laments the downplay of Milton's heresy in recent critical works. The Introduction states that each chapter of this section "focuses on a single heresy-Arianism, Arminianism, and monism" (13). Rumrich exposes Milton's Arianism in his compelling article "Milton's Arianism: Why it Matters." Rumrich asks the question, "[. . .] how is it that so many early readers identified the epic as Arian, when most twentieth-century readers, despite the added evidence of de doctrina, have accepted the claim that Paradise Lost conforms to orthodoxy?" (77) He lists several people who identified Milton's Arianism previous to the finding of De Doctrina Christiana in 1825. Among these people are Daniel DeFoe and Thomas Macauley (76). Rumrich concludes that Milton's silence is due to Arianism carrying civil penalties, including burning at the stake.

Stephen. M. Fallon's 'Elect Above the Rest': Theology as Self-representation in Milton" examines Milton's shift from his Calvinist upbringing toward Arminianism. Fallon employs limits those terms to describe opposing views of soteriology. Fallon proves how Milton's Armianism goes against the grain of the 1619 Synod of Dort. The synod, defending orthodox Calvinism, "warned against 'curiously scrutinizing the deep and mysterious things of God'" (93). Fallon shows how Milton believed that, aided by the Holy Spirit, man could use reason to understand these deep mysteries. Fallon errs in a passing comment about Paul Sellin, another critic. Fallon writes, "He writes de doctrina Christiana is supralapsarian-and thus closer to Calvin than Arminius [. . .]" (98). Fallon falls prey to the common error that Calvin was supralapsarian. On the contrary, Calvin was an infralapsarianist, although the infralapsarianism/supralapsarianism debate occurred after his lifetime. In addition, all major Reformed creeds are explicitly infralapsarian.

The final article in this section, William Kerrigan's "Milton's Kisses," is a beautifully written and entertaining piece on lyrical kissing in the seventeenth century.
A sample of this prose will help express the style. "I think of Milton in Book 4 of Paradise Lost as a great film director. Satan has arrived. The camera has discovered Adam and Eve. It is time to shoot the kiss" (126). The problem with this essay is it fails to explicate what the Introduction says it does: monism. Lyrical kissing is hardly heresy.

By the time one reaches the second half of the book, organization begins to break down. However, Stephen B. Dobranski's article fits well into the third section entitled "Milton and Heresy." The article, "Licensing Milton's Heresy," examines Milton's career as a licenser. Dobranski shows how Milton was very tolerant for the seventeenth century by analyzing what books Milton chose not to censor. Dobranski notes Milton's participation of passing the The Racovian Catechism. The Racovian Catechism explicitly adopts the Socinian heresy. Dobranski suggests, "Perhaps Milton's announcement to Parliament that he approved The Racovian Catechism, as reported by Aitzema, was a conscious attempt by the poet/secretary to create the perception of himself as an independent freethinker" (148). However, Dobranski does not believe his own suggestion. Furthermore, widening the scope of heterodoxy would eventually lead to the acceptance of Milton's own heresies. "Milton may have nominally served as a licenser, in other words, but he still objected to pre-publication censorship and would have helped to draft the new, more lenient registration" (148).

Part four, "Readers of Heresy," contains only two chapters. The first chapter, Joan Bennett's "Asserting Eternal Providence: John Milton Through the Window of Liberation Theology," seems irrelevant to the book. Although Bennett does not call Milton a liberation theologian, she implies it. This article explains how liberation theology contains many inconsistencies and focuses on political action. So does Milton. The article is by far the longest in the book, but also speaks of Milton the least.

Joseph Wittreich's "Milton's Transgressive Maneuvers: Receptions (Then and Now) and the Sexual Politics of Paradise Lost," demonstrates the variety of reaction in early Milton critics and contemporary Milton critics. He gives particular focus to the sexual politics of contemporary criticism. Wittreich notes that contemporary critics assume universalism in their criticism. "Typically, Bennett's allies presume that Milton's values are identical with their own, though occasionally a voice is heard saying that, whatever the enlightened values may be today, Milton's were the values of yesterday. In this latter regard, especially when the issue is Milton's misogyny, both sides in the debate [. . .] can agree" (255-256). Wittreich's impeccable logic exposes the biases of modern critics by laying bare their claims of neutrality.

In addition to sometimes having chapters that do not seem to fit, the book does contain a few typographical errors. Quoting Milton, Corns uses "perfeted" for "perfected" (47). In addition, William Kerrigan uses the word "entirety" where "entirely" should be used. Despite these errors, Milton and Heresy is an entertaining and informative collection.

This book turned everything around when it seemed that Milton's poetic reputation was unsalvagable. Ricks can see more in a line of verse than any other critic, and he writes like an angel. Simply the best work of criticism ever written about this great poet.

I was lucky enough to take Tayler's Milton course in college. You think you know how to read but you don't until Tayler lets you in, slowly, on what reading Renaissance poetry requires. It's not about plot; it's not about suspense. With Milton, as with Shakespeare, you knew the end before you got to the beginning. So something else is going on. Find this book and read it.

Parker carefully balances his focus on Milton's life and the poet's immortal works. Parker begins his study by letting the reader know that he is both a lover of Milton's art and an admirer of Milton the individual. One who devotes time to this considerable study will certainly obtain similar sentiments.