Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost, Second Edition with a New Preface - Softcover

Fish, Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067485747X ISBN 13: 9780674857476

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2003

Synopsis

In 1967 the world of Milton studies was divided into two armed camps: one proclaiming (in the tradition of Blake and Shelley) that Milton was of the devil's party with or without knowing it, the other proclaiming (in the tradition of Addison and C. S. Lewis) that the poet's sympathies are obviously with God and the angels loyal to him.

The achievement of Stanley Fish's Surprised by Sin was to reconcile the two camps by subsuming their claims in a single overarching thesis: Paradise Lost is a poem about how its readers came to be the way they are--that is, fallen--and the poem's lesson is proven on a reader's impulse every time he or she finds a devilish action attractive or a godly action dismaying.

Fish's argument reshaped the face of Milton studies; thirty years later the issues raised in Surprised by Sin continue to set the agenda and drive debate.

About this title

About the Author

Stanley Fish is Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at Florida International University. His many books include There's No Such Thing as Free Speech: And It's a Good Thing, Too.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 067485747X
• ISBN 13: 9780674857476
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 436