The Satanic EpicPrinceton University Press, 2003 - 382 pages The 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. |
From inside the book
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... CRITICISM . 3. EPIC POERTY , ENGLISH - HISTORY AND CRITICISM . 4. MILTON , JOHN , 1608-1674 - CHARACTERS - DEVIL . IN LITERATURE . 6. EVIL IN LITERATURE . PR3562 .F64 2003 821'.4 - DC21 2002025138 5. DEVIL I. TITLE . BRITISH LIBRARY ...
... critics of many persuasions . John Leonard and Michael Lieb will , I hope , recognize how grateful I am for their enor- mously helpful and detailed commentaries on the whole manuscript . For criti- cal and engaged reading of parts of ...
... critics . This book contends that the best way back to the poem Milton composed , rather than the one the orthodox ... criticism , it is right , or at least helpful , except for the implied accusation of ignorance . Milton knew quite ...
... critic attributes this uncertainty to the idea that Milton deliber- ately wrote a controversial poem , one that would continue to disturb its readers and perhaps excite commitment . Custom , tradition , indeed all the common glosses of ...
... criticism . It may seem unthinkable to those beyond the groves of academe , but there has been a conscious attempt by orthodox , pro - God critics ( whether actively Christian or not ) to deflate Satan's wonderfully persuasive rhetoric ...
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 | |