Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton
Written by Nicholas McDowell
Narrated by Richard Pryal
4/5
()
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by Richard Pryal brings Milton's formative years to life, providing an entirely new account of the poet's political radicalization
John Milton (1608–1674) has a unique claim on literary and intellectual history as the author of both Paradise Lost, the greatest narrative poem in English, and prose defences of the execution of Charles I that influenced the French and American revolutions. Tracing Milton’s literary, intellectual, and political development with unprecedented depth and understanding, Poet of Revolution is an unmatched biographical account of the formation of the mind that would go on to create Paradise Lost—but would first justify the killing of a king.
Biographers of Milton have always struggled to explain how the young poet became a notorious defender of regicide and other radical ideas such as freedom of the press, religious toleration, and republicanism. In this groundbreaking intellectual biography of Milton’s formative years, Nicholas McDowell draws on recent archival discoveries to reconcile at last the poet and polemicist. He charts Milton’s development from his earliest days as a London schoolboy, through his university life and travels in Italy, to his emergence as a public writer during the English Civil War. At the same time, McDowell presents fresh, richly contextual readings of Milton’s best-known works from this period, including the “Nativity Ode,” “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” Comus, and “Lycidas.”
Challenging biographers who claim that Milton was always a secret radical, Poet of Revolution shows how the events that provoked civil war in England combined with Milton’s astonishing programme of self-education to instil the beliefs that would shape not only his political prose but also his later epic masterpiece.
Related to Poet of Revolution
Related audiobooks
The Puritans: A Transatlantic History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Life of the Author: John Milton Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Enlightenment: Reason, Tolerance, and Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Metternich: Strategist and Visionary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Froissart's Chronicles—Excerpts: From The Great Wars of England and France Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Henry IV: The Righteous King Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Macat Analysis of Christopher Hill’s The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Age of Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The English Civil Wars: 1640-1660 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chaucer: A European Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell's Protectorate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Waning of the Middle Ages Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Ralegh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emperor: A New Life of Charles V Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eminent Victorians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Princes of the Renaissance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Enlightenment that Failed: Ideas, Revolution, and Democratic Defeat, 1748-1830 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Life of Samuel Johnson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hundred Years War: A People's History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masterpieces of Medieval Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Literary Biographies For You
Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Papillon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Unusual Family, and How I Survived Both Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rude Talk in Athens: Ancient Rivals, the Birth of Comedy, and a Writer's Journey through Greece Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roughing It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Precious Days: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chronicles: Volume One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dad on Pills: Fatherhood and Mental Illness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life Among the Savages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lit: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Poet of Revolution
2 ratings0 reviews