The Satanic EpicThe Satan of Paradise Lost has fascinated generations of readers. This book attempts to explain how and why Milton's Satan is so seductive. It reasserts the importance of Satan against those who would minimize the poem's sympathy for the devil and thereby make Milton orthodox. |
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... poet too full of the Devill , ” said an early reader , the country minister John Beale . Though he thought Paradise Lost " excellent , " he found " great faults " in it , and preferred the earlier poetry , less obviously political : he ...
... poetry can be read in the light of that role , and Milton's women . Under the impact of materialist criticism , and feminist theory , most of the best writing , whether pro- or anti - Milton , has been about those matters . I shall not ...
... poets thought him the prototype of revolu- tionary heroism , most readers have felt compelled to demonstrate his ... Poetic Authority : Spenser , Milton , and Literary History ( New York : Columbia University Press , 1983 ) , pp . 146-71 ...
... , who in his note says he cannot find the other place where Milton uses the same explanation of Isaiah 45.7 , but there it is , a few lines above his note . poetry to Satan , on whose side the language of INTRODUCTION 9.
Neil Forsyth. poetry to Satan , on whose side the language of classical epic turns out in strength . The similes have always been justly admired . Consider , for example , the extraordinarily condensed language for his spear " to equal ...
Contents
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SATAN | 24 |
1 The Old Enemy | 25 |
2 Ancient Myth and Epic | 28 |
3 Hesiod | 30 |
4 Apocalypses | 35 |
5 The satan | 37 |
6 The New Testament | 39 |
7 The Early Church | 43 |
3 The Problem of Evil | 192 |
4 Satan and Ancient Evils | 195 |
Hells Fury | 196 |
6 The Darkness of Hell | 201 |
7 God created evil | 204 |
8 The Language of Sin | 206 |
9 Evil Eve | 207 |
10 Openings | 209 |
8 Heresy | 45 |
9 Medieval Heresy | 49 |
10 Old English Genesis to Chaucer | 50 |
11 Satans Rebellion | 54 |
12 Warfare and Imperialism | 56 |
13 Elizabethan Drama | 60 |
14 Politics | 62 |
15 The Miltonic Moment | 64 |
16 Subversive Satan | 66 |
17 Critical Controversies | 69 |
THE EPIC VOICE | 77 |
2 Hope and Despair | 81 |
3 Dark designs | 86 |
4 Devils into Dwarfs | 87 |
S The Critical Need for the Narrator | 90 |
6 Epic Similes | 100 |
7 Erring | 105 |
8 Parliamentary Devils | 108 |
FOLLOW THE LEADER | 114 |
1 Chaos | 115 |
2 Approaching Paradise | 124 |
3 Satans Entry into Paradise | 129 |
5 Sex | 134 |
MY SELF AM HELL | 147 |
1 Niphates | 148 |
2 Faustus and the Abyss | 152 |
3 God in Satan | 155 |
4 Hell in Heaven | 157 |
5 Witchcraft | 160 |
SATANS REBELLION | 167 |
1 Rebellion in Hesiod | 170 |
2 Gods Creative Word | 171 |
3 Satans Theology | 176 |
4 Sources of Satans Motive | 180 |
5 Hebrews | 183 |
6 Psalm 2 | 185 |
THE LANGUAGE OF EVIL | 188 |
2 Hate in Heaven | 190 |
11 Perverse | 212 |
12 Odium Dei | 214 |
OF MANS FIRST DIS | 217 |
1 Dis | 218 |
2 Satans dark suggestions | 221 |
3 Quibbles | 224 |
4 Vergil | 228 |
S Ovid | 229 |
6 Dante | 233 |
7 Difference | 235 |
HOMER IN MILTON THE ATTENDANCE MOTIF AND THE GRACES | 239 |
SATAN TEMPTER | 259 |
2 Stupidly good | 261 |
3 Sexual Serpents | 263 |
4 Discourse | 265 |
5 The Seductive Text | 268 |
6 Commentators | 272 |
7 What delight | 277 |
8 Satans Sewers | 280 |
9 Satanic Verses | 282 |
IF THEY WILL HEAR | 285 |
AT THE SIGN OF THE DOVE AND SERPENT | 301 |
1 Irenaeus | 303 |
2 The Wisdom of the Serpent | 304 |
3 Image | 305 |
4 The Brazen Serpent | 308 |
5 The Meaning of History | 309 |
6 Christ and Serpent | 311 |
THE STRUCTURES OF PARADISE LOST | 314 |
SIGNS PORTENTOUS | 329 |
2 Disastrous twilight | 332 |
3 Editors | 338 |
4 SunSon | 341 |
5 Reading Signs | 342 |
6 Good with bad expect to hear | 344 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 349 |
371 | |