Milton and the Natural World: Science and Poetry in Paradise Lost

Capa
Cambridge University Press, 07/07/2005 - 280 páginas
Milton and the Natural World overturns prevailing critical assumptions by offering a fresh view of Paradise Lost, in which the representation of Eden's plants and animals is shown to be fully cognizant of the century's new, scientific natural history. The fabulous lore of the old science is wittily debunked, and the poem embraces new imaginative and symbolic possibilities for depicting the natural world, suggested by the speculations of Milton's scientific contemporaries including Robert Boyle, Thomas Browne and John Evelyn. Karen Edwards argues that Milton has represented the natural world in Paradise Lost, with its flowers and trees, insects and beasts, as a text alive with meaning and worthy of close reading.
 

Índice

Experimentalists and the book of the world
40
The place of experimental reading
64
Miltons complicated serpents
85
New uses for monstrous lore
99
From rarities to representatives
115
Naming and not naming
143
Botanical discretion
154
Flourishing colors
166
The balm of life
182
Conclusion
199
Bibliography
245
Index
260
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