Empson, William. “Heaven.” In Milton’s God. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press Reprint, 1979. ISBN: 9780313210211.
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.
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.
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.
Grossman, Marshall. “Milton’s Dialectical Visions.” Modern Philology 82 (1984): 23-39.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1996. ISBN: 9780679879244.
———. The Subtle Knife. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1997. ISBN: 9780679879251.
———. The Amber Spyglass. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1999. ISBN: 9780679879268.
Rumrich, John. “Uninventing Milton.” Modern Philology 87 (1990): 249-265.
———. “Radical Heterodoxy and Heresy.” In A Companion to Milton. Edited by Thomas N. Corns. John Wiley & Sons, 2003, pp. 141-156. ISBN: 9781405113700.
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)
Translations of Ramus (PDF) [This handout translates passages cited in French by Stanley Fish, in “Milk of the Pure Word”.]
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 |
