Milton's Warring Angels: A Study of Critical Engagements

The centrality of Milton to the study of English literature obscures the intense debates that rage about his true allegiances. Was he a Christian Republican or a committed individualist, a radical, heretical free thinker, or a traditional absolutist? In Milton's Warring Angels, William Kolbrener provides a critical account of the reception and interpretation of Milton's texts. He claims that Milton resists paradigms of modernity drawn from the Enlightenment. His writing instead mediates between apparently contradictory positions. This ability to resist tendentious appropriations and reductive readings helps explain the continuing critical fascination with this most enigmatic of writers.