A collection of essays exploring John Milton's rise to popularity and his status as a canonical author. The volume considers Milton's 'authorial persona' in the

“An authoritative, and accessible, introduction to Milton’s life and an engaging examination of the process of composing Paradise Lost” (Choice). In early

William Poole recounts Milton's life as England’s self-elected national poet and explains how the greatest poem of the English language came to be written. Ho

Roger L'Estrange (1616-1704) was one of the most remarkable, significant and colourful figures in seventeenth-century England. Whilst there has been regular, if

Seventeenth-century England teemed with speculation on body and its relation to soul. Descartes' dualist certainty was countered by materialisms, whether mechan