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What in Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Afterlife of Paradise Lost
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About This Book
A highly original hybrid of biography, political history, and literary criticism, telling of the enduring, surprising and ever-evolving relevance of Milton's epic poem through the scandalous life of its creator and the revolutionary lives that were influenced by it.What in Me Is Dark tells the unlikely story of how Milton's epic poem came to haunt political struggles over the past four centuries, including the many different, unexpected, often contradictory ways in which it has been read, interpreted, and appropriated through time and across the world, and to revolutionary ends. The book focuses on twelve readers—including Malcolm X, Thomas Jefferson, George Eliot, Hannah Arendt, and C.L.R James—whose lives demonstrate extraordinary and disturbing influence on the modern age.Drawing from his own experiences teaching Paradise Lost in New Jersey prisons, English scholar Orlando Reade deftly investigates how the poem was read by people embedded in struggles against tyranny, slavery, colonialism, gender inequality, and capitalist exploitation. It is experimental nonfiction at its finest; rich literary analysis and social, cultural and political history are woven together to make a clarifying case for the undeniable impact of the poem.
Reviews
"Offers an expansive history of the epic's reception as it was interpreted and then put to use ..."
"What in Me Is Dark, with its brisk canter over a field as wild and varied as Milton's own masterpiece, will send readers back to the original text with a new sense of its paradoxes, beauties and continuing relevance."
"Lively and humane, Reade is the friendliest of academics ..."
"This book-by-book approach could easily become dull, but in Reade's hands it is a delight."
"Edifying, wide-ranging cultural criticism."
"This edifying analysis testifies to the enduring power of literature."
"This fresh retrospective and exploration of such a foundational text is a pleasure to read."
"The readability and economy of Reade's book is all the more impressive given the sheer amount of information on which his account relies ..."
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