Milton

There is no poet in English Literature like Milton : so firm in religious conviction, so fierce in politics, so high in poetic flight, so grand in style, so great in scholarship, so beautiful in appearance, so overbearing in attitude, so stoical in sufferance and all these are at the same time. And all these varied facets of Milton have variously coloured the English literature. Milton is the third milestone in the History of English Literature, the first and the second being Chaucer and Shakespeare, respectively. Therefore, one's study of English Literature will, certainly, remain incomplete so long as one is not acquainted with Milton's works.
The present book may be treated as an introduction to Milton. In it, all the three phases of Milton's creative life have been highlighted : the phase of early or minor poems, the phase of pamphleteering and the phase of the epics and the lone drama. Special treatments have been accorded to the poet's major works : Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. And, throughout the book, critical and appreciative attitudes are pervading.