Despite the persistence and popularity of addressing the theme of eating in Paradise Lost, the tradition of Adam and Eve's sin as one of gluttony-and the evidence for Milton's adaptation of this tradition-has been either unnoticed or suppressed. Emily Stelzer provides the first book-length work on the philosophical significance of gluttony in this poem, arguing that a complex understanding of gluttony and of ideal, grateful, and gracious eating informs the content of Milton's writing. Working with contextual material in the fields of physiology, philosophy, theology, and literature and building on recent scholarship on Milton's experience of and knowledge about matter and the body, Stelzer draws connections between Milton's work and both underexamined textual influences (including, for example, Gower's Confessio Amantis) and well-recognized ones (such as Augustine's City of God and Galen's On the Natural Faculties).
- ISBN10 027108376X
- ISBN13 9780271083766
- Publish Date 15 June 2019 (first published 14 February 2018)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Pennsylvania State University Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 376
- Language English