The Complete Poetry of John Milton

Rating:
Summary: great book, great price
Review: I recently sat in on a faculty seminar, where we're talking Paradise Lost and what to do with it in a humanities class, and was a bit surprised to find professors from all over the humanities department--a medieval prof, one who specializes in gender studies and 20th century lit, a classicist--who all still liked and read Milton, when I always thought I was a freak for really digging him. And they didn't just read him cause he's part of the canon, no, they truly enjoyed reading his poetry.

Anyway, there were lots of different editions laying around on the table, and I brought my brand new Riverside Milton, edited by Roy Flannagan, which, for all intents and purposes, is a wonderful book, but very expensive, and very, well, heavy. And I miss my old Shawcross, that I must have loaned to someone--with five years' worth of notes in there. I don't think you can beat good old Shawcroww--all of Milton's English poetry, in a good edition, with good apparatus, for under 15 bucks. Any reader, teacher, student of Milton: I highly recommend this edition, and guarantee you you will probably never need another.