Customer Reviews

The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (Bantam Classic)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had to read Paradise Lost for my English class, and I bought this, honestly, so I wouldn't have to buy a Cliffs Notes separately. The annotations are really helpful, and explain a lot of things. Don't be intimidated by the size of the book; it's just the notes. If it's your first time reading Milton, get this. If not, you may be annoyed by the notes; I was after a little while, once I got the gist of the story. I give it 4 stars because it's helpful, but you either love or hate Milton, and I hate it. But the notes (I can't say this enough) make the reading so much easier!

I recognize that Milton is second to Shakespeare in linguistic craft and mastery, and, wanting to round our my literary experience, I searched for month to find a lovely, hardbound, guilt-edged "Complete Works of Milton" to match my lovely, hardbound, guilt-edged "Complete Works of Shakespeare." But to no avail!

I almost bought a paperback "Complete Works of Milton," which had Milton's Greek, Latin, and Italian poems. It surprised me that this man was a genius in many languages, but since I only speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French, I demurred.

I finally settled on this edition since it does the job that an English student or aficionado would want. It contains the complete English sonnets, his English plays, and the supernal-issimo twins "Paradise Lost," and "Paradise Regained." In addition to the polyglot works, this book omits his prose works. But that is for another time and another day!

The "helps" are great. Every line in Epic Paradise plays is numbered, which prevents any miscounting errors. Moreover, it has many helpful footnotes, which highlight many of Milton's word plays and puns. In this dimension, Milton is one of the funniest classicists in the universe.

I enjoy Milton. His wordplay and "force of langue" outstrips Shakespeare in many instances. I also enjoy his obvious Christianity, which is what makes Lucifer is such a charming character. You only counterfeit a true coin!

I'm taking a Literature Class on Milton this semester at University. I bought the Kindle Version of the book so I wouldn't have to buy or carry around the giant text book for the class. However, this book disappointing. After the first class I noticed problems.

1. Some of the words have been changed. Take for example Sonnet 19. The text in this book reads "When I consider how my life is spent" (Line 1) The sonnet is supposed to read "When I consider how My LIGHT is spent" (Line 1). This one word difference makes a huge difference in the poem.

2. I also wish translations of his Latin poems were included. For the price I feel like I should have gotten more poems.