Many of the perennial sources of contradiction in the Christian tradition came to a head in the turmoils of Milton's lifetime. Was sexuality the True Paradise or the destroying serpent? Was Paradise lost forever, or could men "force through the Fire-sword" and regain the Edenic state? These questions were particularly urgent for Milton himself, caught up in the problems of a failed marriage but unwilling to give up his vision of Paradisal sexuality. This study of Milton's confrontation with his precursors and contemporaries, noteworthy for its historical detail and intellectual incisiveness, establishes Milton as a monumental but divided figure--torn between radical and conservative mentalities, between eroticism and hatred of the flesh, and between patriarchal and egalitarian conceptions of Paradisal marriage.
- ISBN10 0198128665
- ISBN13 9780198128663
- Publish Date July 1987
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 13 May 1993
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Clarendon Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 336
- Language English