Milton's Paradise Lost: Moral Education [Hardcover]

Margaret Olofson Thickstun (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1403977577 | ISBN-13: 978-1403977571 | Publication Date: April 17, 2007 | Edition: First Edition

This book reads Milton’s Paradise Lost as a poem that seeks to educate its readers by narrating the education of its main characters. Many of Milton’s characters enter the action in late adolescence, newly independent and eager to test themselves, to discover who they are and their place in the world. The poem charts their progress into moral adulthood. Taking as its premise that attention to the moral development of the poem’s main characters will open the poem to most undergraduate readers, this book explores both the pedagogical activity within Paradise Lost and the pedagogical activity that the poem encourages.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“By a series of careful reexaminations of the most important ‘scenes of instruction’ in Milton’s text, Thickstun consistently illuminates the significance of details many critics have ignored or misunderstood. The prose is also engaging, often funny, and enviably clear. This is a bracing, entertaining, and generous book.”--Louis Schwartz, University of Richmond

“Thickstun provides an admirable and salutary reading of Milton’s epic as a ‘fabric of loving relationships’ in which God as Father nurtures the moral growth of his angelic and human offspring, not by a set of rules but by giving Raphael, Abdiel, Uriel, Satan, Adam, Eve, and others moral responsibilities as teachers and learners.”--Diane Kelsey McColley, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden College of Arts and Sciences

“Thickston’s unprecedented reading of  John Milton’s  Paradise Lost, in dialogue with contemporary research and theory on moral and faith development, provides a compelling demonstration of how great literature can stimulate both cognitive and emotional growth for high school and college students.”--James W. Fowler,

Emory University

 

"[Thickstun's study] is, in my view, an extraordinary study, which is good to see someone undertake . . . she is to be commended for engaging issues which infrequently get attended to by professional students of Milton's writing."--Milton Quarterly

About the Author

Margaret Thickstun holds the Elizabeth J. McCormack Professorship in English Literature at Hamilton College.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403977577
• ISBN-13: 978-1403977571
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,562,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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