Readings

Buy at Amazon Lewis, C. S. A Preface to Paradise Lost: Being the Ballard Matthews Lectures Delivered at University College, North Wales, 1941. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1961. ISBN: 9780195003451.

Buy at Amazon Empson, William. "Heaven." In Milton's God. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press Reprint, 1979. ISBN: 9780313210211.

Buy at Amazon Nyquist, Mary. "Gynesis, Genesis, Exegesis, and the Formation of Milton's Eve." In Cannibals, Witches, and Divorce: Estranging the Renaissance. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780801877384.

Buy at Amazon Kerrigan, William. "One First, Matter All: Spirit as Energy." In The Sacred Complex: On the Psychogenesis of Paradise Lost. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780674785007.

Buy at Amazon Rumrich, John. "Radical Heterodoy and Heresy." In A Companion to Milton. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003. ISBN: 9781405113700.

Buy at Amazon Flesch, William. "The Majesty of Darkness." In John Milton's Paradise Lost (Modern Critical Interpretations). Edited by Harold Bloom. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publications, 1987. ISBN: 9780877544210.

Buy at Amazon Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1996. ISBN: 9780679879244.

Buy at Amazon Gross, Kenneth. "Satan and the Romantic Satan: A Notebook." In Re-Membering Milton: Essays on the Texts and Traditions. Edited by Mary Nyquist and Margaret W. Ferguson. New York, NY: Methuen, 1988, pp. 318-341. ISBN: 9780416397406.

Buy at Amazon Fish, Stanley. "The Milk of the Pure Word." In Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780674857476.

Buy at Amazon Parker, Patricia. "Eve, Evening, and the Labor of Reading in Paradise Lost." In John Milton's Paradise Lost (Modern Critical Interpretations). Edited by Harold Bloom. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publications, 1987. ISBN: 9780877544210.

Buy at Amazon Empson, William. "Heaven." In John Milton's Paradise Lost (Modern Critical Interpretations). Edited by Harold Bloom. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publications, 1987. ISBN: 9780877544210.

Buy at Amazon Kerrigan, William. "'One First Matter All': Spirit as Energy." In John Milton's Paradise Lost (Modern Critical Interpretations). Edited by Harold Bloom. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publications, 1987. ISBN: 9780877544210.

Buy at Amazon ———. The Subtle Knife. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1997. ISBN: 9780679879251.

Buy at Amazon ———. The Amber Spyglass. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1999. ISBN: 9780679879268.

Rumrich, John Peter. "Uninventing Milton." Modern Philology 87 (1990): 249-265.

Buy at Amazon ———. "Radical Heterodoxy and Heresy." In A Companion to Milton. Edited by Thomas N. Corns. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003, pp. 141-156. ISBN: 9781405113700.

Grossman, Marshall. "Milton's Dialectical Visions." Modern Philology 82 (1984): 23-39.

Related Background Materials

What happens in "Paradise Lost": a reader's guide. (PDF)
[Charting the sequence of events in Milton's story against where they occur or are narrated in "Paradise Lost."]

Notes on Lewis, preface, Chapters 7-8 (PDF)

Nyquist VI-VII notes (PDF)

Translations of Ramus (PDF)
[This handout translates passages cited in French by Stanley Fish, in "Milk of the Pure Word".]

Some help with Kerrigan (PDF)

Vocabulary for Kerrigan reading (PDF)
[Some unusual terms defined.]

Unusual vocabulary in Grossman (from the OED) (PDF)
[Some unusual terms defined.]

Paradise Lost
[Searchable, annotated text of the poem.]

Early English Books Online
[Use this site to view the original editions of "Paradise Lost" during Milton's lifetime.]

Milton Reading Room
[This useful site has texts of Milton's other works, sources, and a bibliography of criticism.]

Descartes, First Meditation
[See para 12 for the famous hypothesis of the evil demon (referenced in Gross, p. 319).]

The William Blake Archive
[Gross cites plates 5-6 of this text; find it in the Blake Archive (copies differ only in coloration; try comparing them).]

Marshall Grossman, "Milton's Dialectic Visions"
[This link connects you to the Library's JSTOR service. Enter "Milton's Dialectical Visions" in the Search box.]

SES # READINGS
1 Introductions: first 100 lines of Paradise Lost
2

Milton. Paradise Lost, Book I

Lewis. Preface to Paradise Lost, chapters 7-8

3

Paradise Lost, Book II

Lewis. Preface to Paradise Lost, chapters 9-11

4 Lewis. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
5

Paradise Lost Book III,

Empson. "Heaven"

6

Paradise Lost, Book IV

Nyquist. "Gynesis, Genesis, Exegesis," Parts I-IV

7 Lewis. Perelandra
8

Paradise Lost, Book IV

Nyquist. Parts V-VII

9 Lewis. Perelandra
10

Paradise Lost, Book V

Fish. "The Milk of the Pure Word"

11 Philip Pullman. Golden Compass
12

Paradise Lost. Book VI

Kerrigan. "'One First Matter All': Spirit as Energy"

13 Pullman. Golden Compass
14

Paradise Lost. Book VII

Rumrich 1. "Uninventing Milton"

---. "Radical Heterodoxy"

15 Pullman. Subtle Knife
16

Paradise Lost, Book VIII

Flesch. "The Majesty of Darkness"

17 Pullman. Subtle Knife
18

Paradise Lost, Book IX

Gross. "Satan and Romantic Satan"

19 Pullman. Amber Spyglass
20 Pullman. Amber Spyglass
21

Paradise Lost. Book X

Parker. "Eve, Evening, and the Labor of Reading" In Paradise Lost

25

Paradise Lost, Book XI

Grossman. "Milton’s Dialectic Vision"

26 Paradise Lost, Book XII