"Paradise Lost: A Poem Written in Ten Books"
Essays on the 1667 First Edition

Edited by Michael Lieb & John T. Shawcross

October 2007
ISBN: 0-8207-0393-1 / $60.00s Cloth
ISBN-13: 978-0-8207-0393-0

Order this volume separately or with its companion volume, "Paradise Lost: A Poem Written in Ten Books": An Authoritative Text of the 1667 First Edition

2-Volume Set: “Paradise Lost: A Poem Written in Ten Books” [Authoritative Text & Essays]
Set ISBN: 0-8207-0404-0 / Set ISBN-13: 978-0-8207-0404-3 / $100.00s Cloth (2 volumes)

Book Information

Appearing in tandem with the first publication of an authoritative text of the 1667 first edition of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, these insightful essays by ten Miltonists establish the significant differences in the text, context, and effect of the first edition of Paradise Lost from those of the now-standard second edition of 1674.

Although many books and articles focus on the 1674 edition of Paradise Lost and its heirs, this book represents the first and only collection of original essays on the subject of the 1667 edition of Milton’s major epic. In bringing together essays by various hands, editors Lieb and Shawcross seek to map what may be termed a new frontier in Milton studies, that which acknowledges the importance of what Milton himself considered to be the work of a lifetime when he offered Paradise Lost to the world in 1667. While the scholars writing here do not claim that the first edition of Milton’s epic is to be viewed as supplanting the second and later editions, they do seek to demonstrate the importance of coming to terms with the original 10-book edition both as an epic with its own identity and value and as a work that provides fundamental insight into the nature of the editions that would follow in its wake. 

The essays gathered here encompass a wide range of interest, extending from matters of text to matters of historical and literary context. Several essays touch on the alterations made to the text, especially with the division of two books in the second edition, arguing that this alters Milton’s original intentions, not only in revising his numerological message but obscuring his subtle criticisms of the political scene of the 1660s. These scholars also discuss the epic’s relationship to the literary and theological world it entered in 1667, which has been overlooked as readers have examined only the second edition.   

At issue in all the essays is an awareness that the milieu of the first edition is one that is to be distinguished from the milieux that constitute the later editions. As these scholars demonstrate, Paradise Lost is a work that cannot be fully understood without an awareness of the dynamic and ever-changing nature of the forces through which it made its first and subsequent appearances in the world at large.

Contributors include: Michael Lieb, Joseph Wittreich, Stephen B. Dobranski, Achsah Guibbory, Richard DuRocher, Laura Lunger Knoppers, Bryan Adams Hampton, Phillip J. Donnelly, Michael Bryson, John T. Shawcross

Author Information

John T. Shawcross is professor emeritus of English at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of numerous books, including With Mortal Voice: The Creation of Paradise Lost. He is the coeditor of Milton and the Grounds of Contention, and is a two-time winner of the James Holly Hanford Award for the most distinguished book on Milton.

Michael Lieb is research professor of humanities and professor of English at the University of Illinois, Chicago. An Honored Scholar of the Milton Society of America, he is also recipient of the Society’s James Holly Hanford Award and the Irene Samuel Memorial Award for outstanding books and articles on Milton. His latest book is Theological Milton: Deity, Discourse, and Heresy in the Miltonic Canon.