Reading John Milton: How to Persist in Troubled Times

The work of John Milton is as relevant as ever, according to this dynamic study from Dobranski (Milton’s Visual Imagination), a literature professor at Georgia State University. In Milton’s early sonnets and elegies, the poet insisted that words had the power to challenge and defeat evil, while in his writings against Charles I, Milton argued that individuals must act of their own free will to redress tyranny. Paradise Lost, Dobranski suggests, teaches readers that “even when life is precarious...they can still triumph...if they resist temptation and stand fast,” and the poem’s depiction of Adam and Eve “ultimately transcends the ugly patriarchal assumption of ‘He for God only, she for God in him.’ ” Samson Agonistes, meanwhile, warns that doing the right thing is tough and that violence isn’t always the way forward. Dobranski does a marvelous job of revealing just as much about Milton himself as he does about the man’s work through close readings that create an illuminating portrait of an artist who “aspired to transcend his own limitations, defeats, and prejudices, continuing to work tirelessly and trying to... help his readers to live freely and righteously.” This puts to rest the notion that Milton is just for academics. (Sept.)