Full Description
This edition of Paradise Lost (1667, 1674) makes its own distinctive contribution to the editorial tradition. It presents the two lifetime versions of Milton's poem in juxtaposition with each other. However, unlike previous scholarly editions it does not attempt to synthesise the two lifetime versions into a text that never existed. Nor does it always privilege the later version over the earlier. It presents, too, a new intellectual context for
interpreting the work, demonstrating its intricate intersections with the political and religious controversies of its age, and it connects it more closely than hitherto with Milton's major theological treatise, De
Doctrina Christiana. It also offers a more detailed account of its publishing history and the highly unusual organisation within the booktrade, contrived to distribute Milton's finest achievement in an England devastated by the Great Fire of London.
Contents
Volume 1
Preface
Illustrations
References, Abbreviations, and Short Titles
Editorial Procedures
General Introduction
Textual Introduction
Illustrations to the Title Pages to Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost 1667-1669 and 1674
Volume 2
Illustrations
References, Abbreviations, and Short Titles
General Commentary
Textual Commentary
Appendix 1: The Manuscript of Paradise Lost, Book 1
Appendix 2: The Contract for the First Edition of Paradise Lost
Appendix 3: The Second Printing of Sheet Z and Half-Sheet Vv
Index to the Introductions and Commentaries
