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The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
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Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Author: John Milton
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
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Our Price: $12.89
You Save: $ 6.06 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Author: John Milton
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Average Customer Rating:
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The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.4
EAN: 9780192804099
ISBN: 019280409X
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 1008
Publication Date: 2003-04-03
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.4
EAN: 9780192804099
ISBN: 019280409X
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 1008
Publication Date: 2003-04-03
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Editorial Review of The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
Previously published in the Oxford Authors series, this unique one-volume selection of Milton's poetry and prose includes all the English and Italian verse and a generous selection of his major prose works. Modernized spelling, extensive notes, and a helpful introduction make the text immediately accessible to the modern reader.
Customer Reviews of The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: For Grad School
Review: I needed this book for a graduate class on Milton this semester. The bookstore ran out and I needed a good copy in a hurry. The book was brand new as advertised, was a great price, and the shipping was even better! I got it in 3 days...just in time to complete the assignment!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: John Milton
Review: I am taking a Milton class at college, and there was a mix up at their book store with the Milton book. Some students ordered the correct book for the class through Amazon.com, but I bought this one to use and it's great. It has all the poems and prose that are going to be studied this semester. The teacher passed out a copy of a poem that Milton wrote that was not in her book or in the other students' who bought the correct book, but it was in this one that I bought. It's great.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Nice, but could be better
Review: The Oxford version of Milton's works is fairly comprehensive, and for that, it is appreciated. For those with an understanding of Latin, Oxford's choice to have the Latin opposite the English translation for several of Milton's poems is surely appreciated. However, notes on individual items within a work have endnotes, and while it is nice just to have notes on the works at all, having those notes on the page itself would be much more useful than having to hold a page open in the back of the book while reading a sonnet in the front of it. The Works include Paradise Lost/Regained, as well as Samson Agonistes, besides various poetry and even portions of Milton's pamphlets regarding his sociopolitical thoughts. Overall, not a bad set of works, but the design/layout could have been improved.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Read his work for pleasure; reading it will make you think
Review: Of English writers, John Milton is justly considered to be a close second to Shakespeare. This volume provides good illustration. He is not the easiest writer to read but the editor's notes help (as well as an understanding of mythology, English history, and the Bible). Milton excels in poetry, yet his prose remains powerful (Aeropagitica and Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Commonwealth in particular). Some of his works are rather tough to get through especially if you disagree with his point of view (I found this to be so with Doctine and Discipline of Divorce) or if you are unfamiliar with the time period he was writing in (Tenure of Kings and Magistrates). In his writing you will see his brilliance shine through in his ideas, arguements, and phrasing. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are written with such conviction that you could think that that is how those events had to have happened.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Church, or Muse . . . Doctrine, or Verse ...
Review: [John Milton, son of a scrivener and musician...]
This review is of the Oxford World's Classics edition of
-John Milton: The Major Works- (ISBN: 019280409X),
edited and with an Introduction by Stephen Orgel and
Jonathan Goldberg.
"That kings for such a tomb would wish to die" (John
Milton-- "On Shakespeare") -- "one of the greatest,
most noble, and most sublime poems which either this
age or nation has produced" (John Dryden -- on -Paradise
Lost-). The picture drawn of Milton, his life, and his
career (or careers) by Orgel and Goldberg is of a
man of intelligence and means who had been educated
for the life of a gentleman and a scholar in his
early life, yet finding that the surge of events
and ideologies has a way of changing one's timing,
course of expression, and even personal fate. Thus
Milton makes conflicting statements about his intents,
his "ripeness" (maturity of intellect and wisdom, more
than age), and which venue is his real chosen arena
of expression.
His first published poem, is anonymous, and is
"On Shakespeare" included in "the dedicatory verses
to the second Shakespeare folio[1632]." (Chronology.) Yet
in his first signed publication, -The Reason for Church
Government- (1642), a prose tract, "Milton presents himself ...
as a poet who uses only his 'left hand'
in writing prose. In the account he gives, his entire
life appears to have been spent in training as a poet." (Introduction.)
As the eldest son, however, he "had been from childhood
'destined'...to a Church career." (Introduction.) But
events intrude, as well as yearnings, and the 2 Jan. 1646
publication of -Poems of Mr. John MIlton, Both English
and Latin-, dated 1645. The Church career never materializes,
but in a strange way, a more interesting "preaching" or
"exhorting" or "inspirational" one does, through his
poetry, rather than his political tracts. And Milton,
perhaps even oblivious to his own constantly self-
revisionist attitudes and stances, creates a more
enduring legacy which has influenced literature,
scholarship, views about justifying "the ways of
God to man" (from -Paradise Lost-), and the common
cultural views about Satan, and Hell, and the Fall,
even more so than those of Dante.
This is an excellent edition which contains the
shorter English poems, the Latin poems (with both
Latin text on left pages -- and the Enlish translations
on the right pages), Selections from -A Book of
Sylvae-, Greek poem added 1673, Carmina Elegiaca,
the Prose Works: from -The Reason of Church Government-,
from -An Apology for Smectymnuus-, -The Doctrine and
Discipline of Divorce (Complete), -Of Education-
(Complete), -Areopagitica- (Complete), -The Tenure
of Kings and Magistrates- (Complete), from -The
Second Defence of the English People, -The Ready and
Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth- (Complete).
Of course, there is also -Paradise Lost- (Complete);
-Paradise Regained- (Complete); and -Samson Agonistes-
(Complete). Highly enlightening are 3 Familiar Letters
of 1674: "To Charles Diodati, 1637"; "To Benedetto
Buonmattei, 1638"; and "To Leonard Philaras, Athenian."
There is a lengthy excerpt from -Christian Doctrine-
which starts out talking of "restoring religion to
something of its pure original state" and has the
very interesting (telling) perspective on Milton's
own "cross": "If I were to say that I had focused
my studies principally upon Christian doctrine because
nothing else can so effectually wipe away those two
repulsive affictions,tyranny and superstition [of
course, no idea that doctrine itself might promote
those two evils -- R.K.], from human life and the
human mind, I should show that I had been concerned
not for religion but for life's well-being." And
the glory of Oxford editions, there are copious
notes in the back going from page 735 to page 959,
Further Reading List, and Index of Titles and First
Lines. At this price, this volume is a real steal
(er, get thee behind me, Satan...) ... bargain!
-- Robert Kilgore.
Review Summary: For Grad School
Review: I needed this book for a graduate class on Milton this semester. The bookstore ran out and I needed a good copy in a hurry. The book was brand new as advertised, was a great price, and the shipping was even better! I got it in 3 days...just in time to complete the assignment!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: John Milton
Review: I am taking a Milton class at college, and there was a mix up at their book store with the Milton book. Some students ordered the correct book for the class through Amazon.com, but I bought this one to use and it's great. It has all the poems and prose that are going to be studied this semester. The teacher passed out a copy of a poem that Milton wrote that was not in her book or in the other students' who bought the correct book, but it was in this one that I bought. It's great.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Nice, but could be better
Review: The Oxford version of Milton's works is fairly comprehensive, and for that, it is appreciated. For those with an understanding of Latin, Oxford's choice to have the Latin opposite the English translation for several of Milton's poems is surely appreciated. However, notes on individual items within a work have endnotes, and while it is nice just to have notes on the works at all, having those notes on the page itself would be much more useful than having to hold a page open in the back of the book while reading a sonnet in the front of it. The Works include Paradise Lost/Regained, as well as Samson Agonistes, besides various poetry and even portions of Milton's pamphlets regarding his sociopolitical thoughts. Overall, not a bad set of works, but the design/layout could have been improved.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Read his work for pleasure; reading it will make you think
Review: Of English writers, John Milton is justly considered to be a close second to Shakespeare. This volume provides good illustration. He is not the easiest writer to read but the editor's notes help (as well as an understanding of mythology, English history, and the Bible). Milton excels in poetry, yet his prose remains powerful (Aeropagitica and Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Commonwealth in particular). Some of his works are rather tough to get through especially if you disagree with his point of view (I found this to be so with Doctine and Discipline of Divorce) or if you are unfamiliar with the time period he was writing in (Tenure of Kings and Magistrates). In his writing you will see his brilliance shine through in his ideas, arguements, and phrasing. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are written with such conviction that you could think that that is how those events had to have happened.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Church, or Muse . . . Doctrine, or Verse ...
Review: [John Milton, son of a scrivener and musician...]
This review is of the Oxford World's Classics edition of
-John Milton: The Major Works- (ISBN: 019280409X),
edited and with an Introduction by Stephen Orgel and
Jonathan Goldberg.
"That kings for such a tomb would wish to die" (John
Milton-- "On Shakespeare") -- "one of the greatest,
most noble, and most sublime poems which either this
age or nation has produced" (John Dryden -- on -Paradise
Lost-). The picture drawn of Milton, his life, and his
career (or careers) by Orgel and Goldberg is of a
man of intelligence and means who had been educated
for the life of a gentleman and a scholar in his
early life, yet finding that the surge of events
and ideologies has a way of changing one's timing,
course of expression, and even personal fate. Thus
Milton makes conflicting statements about his intents,
his "ripeness" (maturity of intellect and wisdom, more
than age), and which venue is his real chosen arena
of expression.
His first published poem, is anonymous, and is
"On Shakespeare" included in "the dedicatory verses
to the second Shakespeare folio[1632]." (Chronology.) Yet
in his first signed publication, -The Reason for Church
Government- (1642), a prose tract, "Milton presents himself ...
as a poet who uses only his 'left hand'
in writing prose. In the account he gives, his entire
life appears to have been spent in training as a poet." (Introduction.)
As the eldest son, however, he "had been from childhood
'destined'...to a Church career." (Introduction.) But
events intrude, as well as yearnings, and the 2 Jan. 1646
publication of -Poems of Mr. John MIlton, Both English
and Latin-, dated 1645. The Church career never materializes,
but in a strange way, a more interesting "preaching" or
"exhorting" or "inspirational" one does, through his
poetry, rather than his political tracts. And Milton,
perhaps even oblivious to his own constantly self-
revisionist attitudes and stances, creates a more
enduring legacy which has influenced literature,
scholarship, views about justifying "the ways of
God to man" (from -Paradise Lost-), and the common
cultural views about Satan, and Hell, and the Fall,
even more so than those of Dante.
This is an excellent edition which contains the
shorter English poems, the Latin poems (with both
Latin text on left pages -- and the Enlish translations
on the right pages), Selections from -A Book of
Sylvae-, Greek poem added 1673, Carmina Elegiaca,
the Prose Works: from -The Reason of Church Government-,
from -An Apology for Smectymnuus-, -The Doctrine and
Discipline of Divorce (Complete), -Of Education-
(Complete), -Areopagitica- (Complete), -The Tenure
of Kings and Magistrates- (Complete), from -The
Second Defence of the English People, -The Ready and
Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth- (Complete).
Of course, there is also -Paradise Lost- (Complete);
-Paradise Regained- (Complete); and -Samson Agonistes-
(Complete). Highly enlightening are 3 Familiar Letters
of 1674: "To Charles Diodati, 1637"; "To Benedetto
Buonmattei, 1638"; and "To Leonard Philaras, Athenian."
There is a lengthy excerpt from -Christian Doctrine-
which starts out talking of "restoring religion to
something of its pure original state" and has the
very interesting (telling) perspective on Milton's
own "cross": "If I were to say that I had focused
my studies principally upon Christian doctrine because
nothing else can so effectually wipe away those two
repulsive affictions,tyranny and superstition [of
course, no idea that doctrine itself might promote
those two evils -- R.K.], from human life and the
human mind, I should show that I had been concerned
not for religion but for life's well-being." And
the glory of Oxford editions, there are copious
notes in the back going from page 735 to page 959,
Further Reading List, and Index of Titles and First
Lines. At this price, this volume is a real steal
(er, get thee behind me, Satan...) ... bargain!
-- Robert Kilgore.