Milton

Starred review from June 9, 2008
Four hundred years after John Milton’s birth, biographer and Oxford lecturer Beer (Bess: The Life of Lady Ralegh, Wife to Sir Walter
) presents a loving tribute, a portrait of the poet in all his humanity. Drawing on newly available archives, Beer elegantly chronicles Milton’s life from his precocious childhood (he read Greek and Latin when he was five) to his embattled support of Cromwell and his mature religious and political writings. Beer points out that Milton wasn’t a one-note writer, but excelled in producing religious pamphlets (The Reason of Church Government
), treatises on education and divorce (Areopagitica
and The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
) and epic poetry (Paradise Lost
). Although the specifics of Milton’s three marriages are well known, Beer reveals the details of a little-discussed aspect of the poet’s life: his passionate, and perhaps homoerotic, friendship with Charles Diodati. Planting Milton firmly in his time, one of political and religious upheaval, Beer’s splendid biography portrays Milton (d. 1674) as “both a radical and a traditionalist” who drew on classical and Christian sources to contend again and again for freedom from tyranny and oppression. B&w illus.

May 1, 2008
John Milton's books were publicly burned on two occasions1660 and 1683the result of the fear and hostility he inspired in many of his 17th-century contemporaries. How would Miltonthe man who once wrote "as good almost kill a Man as kill a good Book"have felt about these incidents? Here, Beer (literature, Oxford Univ.; "Bess: The Life of Lady Raleigh, Wife to Sir Walter") supplies the detail to answer that question. She begins by examining Milton's life from childhood through adulthood, providing extensive background material to explain the events and issues that confronted and propelled him during his lifetime. Bemoaning the lack of personal documents or other records relating to Milton's domestic life, Beer, an eloquent writer and a distinguished scholar, instead turns to diaries of the period to supplement her discussion. Her admiration of her subject is apparent; she notes Milton's "extraordinary creativity," his "powerful political and religious engagement," and his defeat of the "challenging obstacles of blindness and censorship." This excellent volume, which celebrates the quartercentenary of Milton's birth, makes an excellent addition to the literature on his life and work and is highly recommended for academic libraries. (Index, maps, and artwork not seen.)Kathryn R. Bartelt, Univ. of Evansville Libs., IN

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