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Making Darkness Light: A Life of John Milton
An innovative and elegant new biography of John Milton from an acclaimed Oxford professor
John Milton was once essential reading for visionaries and revolutionaries, from William Blake to Ben Franklin. Now, however, he has become a literary institution—intimidating rather than inspiring.
In Making Darkness Light , Oxford professor Joe Moshenska rediscovers a poet whose rich contradictions confound his monumental image. Immersing ourselves in the rhythms and textures of Milton’s world, we move from the music of his childhood home to his encounter with Galileo in Florence into his idiosyncratic belief system and his strange, electrifying imagination.
Making Darkness Light will change the way we think about Milton, the place of his writings in his life, and his life in history. It is also a book about Milton’s place in our about our relationship with the Western canon, about why and how we read, and about what happens when we let someone else’s ideas inflect our own.
John Milton was once essential reading for visionaries and revolutionaries, from William Blake to Ben Franklin. Now, however, he has become a literary institution—intimidating rather than inspiring.
In Making Darkness Light , Oxford professor Joe Moshenska rediscovers a poet whose rich contradictions confound his monumental image. Immersing ourselves in the rhythms and textures of Milton’s world, we move from the music of his childhood home to his encounter with Galileo in Florence into his idiosyncratic belief system and his strange, electrifying imagination.
Making Darkness Light will change the way we think about Milton, the place of his writings in his life, and his life in history. It is also a book about Milton’s place in our about our relationship with the Western canon, about why and how we read, and about what happens when we let someone else’s ideas inflect our own.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2021
29 people are currently reading
263 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
December 2, 2021
It’s been over forty years since I studied John Milton in an honors class at Temple University. While studying Milton, I bored people with all I was learning about him and his poetry. On the train ride home from Temple, I read his verse out loud; being a speed reader I had to slow myself down. I assure you, few people took the seat next to me!
I haven’t read his work since then, but for revisiting On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity every year. It was time to revisit Milton.
Joe Moshenska’s Making Darkness Light is more than a study of Milton’s life, time, and work. It is a personal exploration of the poet, the author’s struggle to understand why he has been obsessed with Milton for years. Moshenska traveled across London and Europe, following Milton’s trail, imagining how the places and people he met impacted his work. I have read several books like this recently, biographies that are personal, the authors writing about visiting where their subjects lived and traveled. It is a refreshing approach that I enjoy. As Moshenska demonstrates how Milton comes alive for him, he illuminates this complex man and poet for us.
Milton was a Nonconformist thinker, a Christian, and a man who supported republicanism and the murder of Charles I. He was a man who married unwisely and supported divorce, then married two more times. He was a scholar of great breadth, determined to become a poet by writing epic poems. He became blind and blamed his diet, and he met Galileo and was familiar with cutting edge scientific discoveries. He was anti-Catholic but made friends across Italy during his travels.
This is not an easy book, it requires attention and work, at least for someone like myself, whose scholarly days ended forty-three years ago. But I kept on, for it is a beautiful book, complex and rich.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
I haven’t read his work since then, but for revisiting On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity every year. It was time to revisit Milton.
Joe Moshenska’s Making Darkness Light is more than a study of Milton’s life, time, and work. It is a personal exploration of the poet, the author’s struggle to understand why he has been obsessed with Milton for years. Moshenska traveled across London and Europe, following Milton’s trail, imagining how the places and people he met impacted his work. I have read several books like this recently, biographies that are personal, the authors writing about visiting where their subjects lived and traveled. It is a refreshing approach that I enjoy. As Moshenska demonstrates how Milton comes alive for him, he illuminates this complex man and poet for us.
Milton was a Nonconformist thinker, a Christian, and a man who supported republicanism and the murder of Charles I. He was a man who married unwisely and supported divorce, then married two more times. He was a scholar of great breadth, determined to become a poet by writing epic poems. He became blind and blamed his diet, and he met Galileo and was familiar with cutting edge scientific discoveries. He was anti-Catholic but made friends across Italy during his travels.
This is not an easy book, it requires attention and work, at least for someone like myself, whose scholarly days ended forty-three years ago. But I kept on, for it is a beautiful book, complex and rich.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
January 12, 2022
In line with other Oxford academics such as Bart van Es, Marion Turner, Emma Smith, and Simon Palfrey, Joe Moshenska is commited to pushing the boundaries of literary criticism. Making Darkness Light is the latest of his attempts, and it is engrossingly successful. Moshenska's Milton is (rightly) a fractured man, always asking who he is, what he can and should be, what he should believe in. Granted, this is not a particularly novel reading of Milton (or any author), but the way Moshenska builds this impression by exercising the historical imagination where records peter off into silence, by bringing in his own personal and professional experiences, by traversing the actual landscapes that lay at the back of Milton's thought, results in an acutely human Milton. Moshenska may have titled his book as such to capture the way 'Milton is both the poet of clear and brutal contrast, content to set up poles of light and dark, and the poet of the shades and gradations that lie between those poles' (p. 14); what he does not give due justice to is the way his work itself makes the darkness and difficulty of Milton's life, thought and work, light.
December 28, 2021
I have never read or studied Milton, so can’t comment on the author’s claims in this wide-ranging and original approach to the great poet’s writing, but I certainly found it an enlightening and useful introduction to the work. It’s not a conventional cradle-to-grave biography, nor is it conventional literary analysis (although there is plenty of that) and nor is it strictly speaking a memoir (although again there’s plenty of that). A successful amalgam of all three. It partly fictionalises Milton’s life, but does so with sensitivity to the known facts and manages to make this long-dead poet come alive for the reader. Well, this reader anyway. The writing is accessible, and the author conveys wonderfully what reading Milton has meant to him personally. So yes, this is a personal approach, but all the more interesting for that. I learnt a lot from my reading, and should I ever feel brave enough to tackle Milton’s poetry, I will definitely be keeping this book by my side.
October 23, 2021
This is a look at Milton that combines snapshots of significant points in his life with fictionalised embellishments and other asides . When it’s good it’s very good - the important political , religious and cultural contexts are nicely filled in ( the English civil war is the background here ) and there is good treatment of the journey to Paradise Lost , a work I’ve loved since my university Milton module .
But the book is prone to irritating diversions , and the fictionalised bits vary in usefulness . At the start there is along preamble about a clock that might have been his which leads into a too long ramble about how we relate to time . A supposed Milton attempt to reshape time is a theme here but not one I’m convinced about . Later we get a glimpse of Milton in Italy as diplomat and spy . I’d have liked more on this but instead we get speculation on whether a close friendship was homosexual and a rant on how reactionary it is to assume otherwise . Maybe , but since we can’t know and Milton was married three times , what’s the point ? There is speculation of this with Shakespeare and Marlowe too , not without some foundation , based on writings and classical male relationship models , but still speculative .
The authors confessed love of Italy means a lot of the book is spent here . This died get explained but it’s still Costing other important material decent space , though the poet Taso’s thoughts about the Christianisation of the epic ( forming thoughts about PL) is important . Venice was a working republic precisely when England was about to try this . And I enjoyed the account of Milton’s meeting with Galileo and how PL’s cosmology reflects the tension between his views and those they replaced .
PL and it’s sequel Paradise Regained which deals with Christ’s temptation needed more coverage . Less Lycidas and more Paradise would balance this book . As with Samson Agonistes though , which has entered the debates about legitimate political violence on the wake of terrorist atrocities , the observations are interesting . The author also discusses the misogyny that Milton is often accused of and offers thoughtful context and nuance .
The author tells us much about himself and own relationship with Milton . It isn’t all relevant but it stays just in the right side of being more about author than subject . Milton was an unusual thinker with some unorthodox theological views , and great wit . You have to love the scene in PL where an angel drops in for lunch to tell Adam and Eve about the fall of Satan only to be asked if angels eat and have sex . Only in Milton will you see an angel blush , and the answer is interesting . His Areopagitica makes a powerful anti censorship argument ( that our convictions are sharpened abd rooted by exposure to their opposites ) that I think both sides of today’s culture war could do with reading . And his pistol psychology is amazing .
This is an idiosyncratic book , self indulgent and unbalanced but still really worth the time . Like Armando Ianucci’s tv program on PL, enthusiasm shines through , and it’s a good tribute to a poet who should get more exposure , and t avoids dryness . I would have liked a slightly more cogent track of the life between the snapshots though .
But the book is prone to irritating diversions , and the fictionalised bits vary in usefulness . At the start there is along preamble about a clock that might have been his which leads into a too long ramble about how we relate to time . A supposed Milton attempt to reshape time is a theme here but not one I’m convinced about . Later we get a glimpse of Milton in Italy as diplomat and spy . I’d have liked more on this but instead we get speculation on whether a close friendship was homosexual and a rant on how reactionary it is to assume otherwise . Maybe , but since we can’t know and Milton was married three times , what’s the point ? There is speculation of this with Shakespeare and Marlowe too , not without some foundation , based on writings and classical male relationship models , but still speculative .
The authors confessed love of Italy means a lot of the book is spent here . This died get explained but it’s still Costing other important material decent space , though the poet Taso’s thoughts about the Christianisation of the epic ( forming thoughts about PL) is important . Venice was a working republic precisely when England was about to try this . And I enjoyed the account of Milton’s meeting with Galileo and how PL’s cosmology reflects the tension between his views and those they replaced .
PL and it’s sequel Paradise Regained which deals with Christ’s temptation needed more coverage . Less Lycidas and more Paradise would balance this book . As with Samson Agonistes though , which has entered the debates about legitimate political violence on the wake of terrorist atrocities , the observations are interesting . The author also discusses the misogyny that Milton is often accused of and offers thoughtful context and nuance .
The author tells us much about himself and own relationship with Milton . It isn’t all relevant but it stays just in the right side of being more about author than subject . Milton was an unusual thinker with some unorthodox theological views , and great wit . You have to love the scene in PL where an angel drops in for lunch to tell Adam and Eve about the fall of Satan only to be asked if angels eat and have sex . Only in Milton will you see an angel blush , and the answer is interesting . His Areopagitica makes a powerful anti censorship argument ( that our convictions are sharpened abd rooted by exposure to their opposites ) that I think both sides of today’s culture war could do with reading . And his pistol psychology is amazing .
This is an idiosyncratic book , self indulgent and unbalanced but still really worth the time . Like Armando Ianucci’s tv program on PL, enthusiasm shines through , and it’s a good tribute to a poet who should get more exposure , and t avoids dryness . I would have liked a slightly more cogent track of the life between the snapshots though .
April 26, 2022
What kept me from giving this book one star is a section of about 100 pages 2/3 of the way through where the author gets out of the way long enough to actually tell you some interesting things about Milton's time and life. There are other brief glimmers of this scattered elsewhere in the book but you have to work to find them.
On the other hand, there is so much wrong with this alleged biography that I hardly know where too start. The author never seems to miss a chance to write sentences, paragraphs and even chapters in such a convoluted style that you really have to work to even figure out what he is trying to say, which often isn't much. He also thrusts himself into the story so frequently that it becomes as much memoir as biography, but I certainly didn't want to read a book about Joe Moshenska and his quest for John Milton. This is ni-picking but he must have told us 20 times that he reads Milton from the author's perspective as an atheistic Jew.
I learned some about Milton from this book, but the main thing I learned is that there have to be better Milton biographies out there.
On the other hand, there is so much wrong with this alleged biography that I hardly know where too start. The author never seems to miss a chance to write sentences, paragraphs and even chapters in such a convoluted style that you really have to work to even figure out what he is trying to say, which often isn't much. He also thrusts himself into the story so frequently that it becomes as much memoir as biography, but I certainly didn't want to read a book about Joe Moshenska and his quest for John Milton. This is ni-picking but he must have told us 20 times that he reads Milton from the author's perspective as an atheistic Jew.
I learned some about Milton from this book, but the main thing I learned is that there have to be better Milton biographies out there.
July 11, 2022
This is not a biography. As long as you're clear about that from the outset, there is a lot that's interesting here.
Moshenska says, in the last chapter, "Milton remains best encountered as a series of scattered moments and encounters which do not, and need not, add up to a cohesive whole." And that is about as concise and accurate a description of this book as you could want. Each chapter focuses on a point in Milton's life, and the context for that moment in time and place and history and Milton's development.
When I was in college I took a British literature class and we all dreaded the fact that we were going to read Paradise Lost, and I actually really enjoyed it, so I wanted to see if I could recapture some of that interest and maybe read it again.
The answer is yes, and no, and that isn't Moshenska's fault - it may be possible to make darkness light but not to make Milton likeable. There are some interesting things in here that will inform the reading if I ever read PL again, about the character of Eve and the nature of angels and how Milton's language works - reading PL in Moshenska's class must be revelatory.
For me, almost my favorite part of the book was not about Milton and was in the introduction. I feel almost exactly this way. "...whenever we read or watch or hear or experience something new we are quite literally modifying who we are, often in tiny and imperceptible ways, by altering the stock of stuff in our minds. Choosing to spend longer in the company of a given writer who matters to us, to return to his or her writings repeatedly and over a long period of time, is choosing to be changed more and for longer, and in ways that are likely to become more apparent to us as time goes on. To reread a book or poem that matters to us, to rewatch or listen again to a favourite song or film, is not only to experience it in a new way but also to encounter both the person we were when we last encountered it and the changes that have transpired since."
Moshenska says, in the last chapter, "Milton remains best encountered as a series of scattered moments and encounters which do not, and need not, add up to a cohesive whole." And that is about as concise and accurate a description of this book as you could want. Each chapter focuses on a point in Milton's life, and the context for that moment in time and place and history and Milton's development.
When I was in college I took a British literature class and we all dreaded the fact that we were going to read Paradise Lost, and I actually really enjoyed it, so I wanted to see if I could recapture some of that interest and maybe read it again.
The answer is yes, and no, and that isn't Moshenska's fault - it may be possible to make darkness light but not to make Milton likeable. There are some interesting things in here that will inform the reading if I ever read PL again, about the character of Eve and the nature of angels and how Milton's language works - reading PL in Moshenska's class must be revelatory.
For me, almost my favorite part of the book was not about Milton and was in the introduction. I feel almost exactly this way. "...whenever we read or watch or hear or experience something new we are quite literally modifying who we are, often in tiny and imperceptible ways, by altering the stock of stuff in our minds. Choosing to spend longer in the company of a given writer who matters to us, to return to his or her writings repeatedly and over a long period of time, is choosing to be changed more and for longer, and in ways that are likely to become more apparent to us as time goes on. To reread a book or poem that matters to us, to rewatch or listen again to a favourite song or film, is not only to experience it in a new way but also to encounter both the person we were when we last encountered it and the changes that have transpired since."
October 14, 2021
The subtitle for this book is “A Life of John Milton” and that seems to sum it up. But actually this biography is very different from the chronological norm - he was born, he did these things, he died. This book takes episodes from Milton’s life and spins them into history, biography, and sets them in context of a disruptive and difficult time in England’s past. We also learn about the author himself and his interactions with Milton - the legend and the man. I liked this concept. By understanding some of Mr Moshenka’s fascination I developed more of an interest myself.
I have visited Milton’s cottage and I have struggled with Paradise Lost and some of Milton’s obscure poetry but having the setting explained and enhanced makes the work easier to understand. The author develops a story of Milton’s birth by talking about a clock on the wall. He has no way of knowing if the Milton household had this clock, but the description gives a picture of a typical household and helps to lodge the period firmly in mind.
I found the book moving, and interesting, and well written and I enjoyed looking over the author’s shoulder as he explains the life and times of an interesting man who overcame huge obstacles and personal issues to become one of our greatest poets.
Recommended if you like poetry, literature, or biography and if you want to understand the times when killing a King seemed like a good idea.
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review
I have visited Milton’s cottage and I have struggled with Paradise Lost and some of Milton’s obscure poetry but having the setting explained and enhanced makes the work easier to understand. The author develops a story of Milton’s birth by talking about a clock on the wall. He has no way of knowing if the Milton household had this clock, but the description gives a picture of a typical household and helps to lodge the period firmly in mind.
I found the book moving, and interesting, and well written and I enjoyed looking over the author’s shoulder as he explains the life and times of an interesting man who overcame huge obstacles and personal issues to become one of our greatest poets.
Recommended if you like poetry, literature, or biography and if you want to understand the times when killing a King seemed like a good idea.
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review
June 10, 2022
I hate this stuff. A "biography" in which we are meant to be as fascinated by the working of the author's mind as we are by his subject. The odd mixture of fictionalised sections and biographical evidence doesn't help.
5 months later & - based on good reviews - I give it another try. No. I know that autobiography is the only approved biography one can really get away with these days, but then the writer needs to be more than a university lecturer clouding one's view of his magnificent subject with his own recollections and imaginings. I admit, sometimes it does pay off here, but more often than not it feels like being with a pub bore.
5 months later & - based on good reviews - I give it another try. No. I know that autobiography is the only approved biography one can really get away with these days, but then the writer needs to be more than a university lecturer clouding one's view of his magnificent subject with his own recollections and imaginings. I admit, sometimes it does pay off here, but more often than not it feels like being with a pub bore.
August 25, 2021
The rare book that can be enjoyed equally by the Milton expert or the Milton neophyte. Incredible, interesting, new and insightful perspective and analysis of Milton’s life and work. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Milton and wants to learn more.
March 15, 2022
DNF and just skimmed. I wanted a biography but this weaves in too much memoir. There’s also a lot of the authors ideology so it feels very subjective.
May 19, 2022
A strange and difficult read. Gave up.
December 1, 2025
I'm reporting from my 13 hours spent hearing this in the pleasant, polished, yet approachable and accessible voice of Joe Eyre, who channels Cambridge graduate-turned-professor (lucky him) Joe Moshenska's blend of personal quest as the son of Yiddish-speaking Londoners and an atheist himself with a life of Milton, sure, but filtered through the expected topics of gender, otherness, (dis)belief, non-conformity, and male identity. However liberal as Milton is claimed, he sure hated both my Irish and Catholic ancestors, and that double affiliation probably didn't help my own grade when I had to tackle this towering figure during my graduate school requirements. Yet the experience of confronting Milton lingered despite my predilections, and revisiting him through this book proved mostly a plus.
For Moshenska although he protests his absence of faith in God a bit too often, along with his secular Jewish perspective, does align the insider-outsider angle sharply within the prose and poetry of a very formidable talent. Explaining him to readers who odds on may share this scholar's aversion to Christ as more than an historical eminence accounts for much interpretation making Milton an uneasy mix of harbinger for free speech, individual rights, and innate reason on the one hand, albeit a petty and cruel domestic tyrant, a husband with dubious compassion, and a Dissenter with prejudices of his era.
I found the treatment of the early poems engaging beyond any expectations. However, Paradise Lost gets chopped up into the narrative without a central chapter. Yes, thus mirroring the piecemeal way it took shape over decades amidst his other work, but PL remains diffused, while Paradise Regained, a text needing I'd aver more coverage due to its comparative neglect (cf Inferno in Dante vs its two sequels) alongside Samson Agonistes suffer from their brief and uneven attention. While certainly a recommended treatment of the overall arc of Milton throughout his English and Italian sojourns, it's not without its peaks and valleys as Moshenska's travels retrace the sights and seers Milton had met...
For Moshenska although he protests his absence of faith in God a bit too often, along with his secular Jewish perspective, does align the insider-outsider angle sharply within the prose and poetry of a very formidable talent. Explaining him to readers who odds on may share this scholar's aversion to Christ as more than an historical eminence accounts for much interpretation making Milton an uneasy mix of harbinger for free speech, individual rights, and innate reason on the one hand, albeit a petty and cruel domestic tyrant, a husband with dubious compassion, and a Dissenter with prejudices of his era.
I found the treatment of the early poems engaging beyond any expectations. However, Paradise Lost gets chopped up into the narrative without a central chapter. Yes, thus mirroring the piecemeal way it took shape over decades amidst his other work, but PL remains diffused, while Paradise Regained, a text needing I'd aver more coverage due to its comparative neglect (cf Inferno in Dante vs its two sequels) alongside Samson Agonistes suffer from their brief and uneven attention. While certainly a recommended treatment of the overall arc of Milton throughout his English and Italian sojourns, it's not without its peaks and valleys as Moshenska's travels retrace the sights and seers Milton had met...
March 11, 2022
Joe Moshenska's biography of John Milton is self-indulgent, but charmingly so. Repeatedly Moshenska makes references to how he feels in encountering Milton's work and visiting the important sites of his life. Moshenska presents scenes which, as he acknowledges, are speculative, but consistent with what we know of Milton's life and thought. He reads deeply into Milton, and weaves the events of the Milton's life into his poetry and polemics.
Many admirers of Milton's poetry are unaware of the political and theological beliefs that took expression in his prose, both in Latin and in English. (Milton was equally at home in both languages.) He wrote a tract in defense of divorce at a time he was estranged from his first wife, then a girl of but fifteen summers. Later, during Cromwell's rule, he wrote a tract in defense of regicide. Milton had the good fortune to have been imprisoned only briefly after the restoration of the monarchy, when many of his fellow roundheads ended their lives on the gallows.
A particularly interesting anecdote related in this book concerns Milton's meeting with Galileo during a tour of Italy. Milton was 30 years old at the time, a writer of accomplishment but not yet titanic reputation. Galileo was 77 years old, blind, and under house arrest for heresy. That Milton too would later become blind and also fall into bad odor with the authorities gives especial poignancy to this encounter.
Of course, Milton's poetry stands on its own merits even if we know nothing of his personal life. The majesty of his poetic accomplishment cannot be conveyed in a biography, and even less in a brief book review such as this. In Paradise Lost, Milton tell us how he "...with no middle flight intends to soar..." and pursue "Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime." What remarkable success he had in that!
Many admirers of Milton's poetry are unaware of the political and theological beliefs that took expression in his prose, both in Latin and in English. (Milton was equally at home in both languages.) He wrote a tract in defense of divorce at a time he was estranged from his first wife, then a girl of but fifteen summers. Later, during Cromwell's rule, he wrote a tract in defense of regicide. Milton had the good fortune to have been imprisoned only briefly after the restoration of the monarchy, when many of his fellow roundheads ended their lives on the gallows.
A particularly interesting anecdote related in this book concerns Milton's meeting with Galileo during a tour of Italy. Milton was 30 years old at the time, a writer of accomplishment but not yet titanic reputation. Galileo was 77 years old, blind, and under house arrest for heresy. That Milton too would later become blind and also fall into bad odor with the authorities gives especial poignancy to this encounter.
Of course, Milton's poetry stands on its own merits even if we know nothing of his personal life. The majesty of his poetic accomplishment cannot be conveyed in a biography, and even less in a brief book review such as this. In Paradise Lost, Milton tell us how he "...with no middle flight intends to soar..." and pursue "Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime." What remarkable success he had in that!
June 5, 2022
Interesting structure of biography- Moshenska's chapters situate Milton at a particular instant and proceed to telescope outwards, taking in that particular period of his life, the political and social context, the new advances in science, and speculates on how that might have influenced his work- the language he employed, the reasons for the musicality of Paradise Lost and the variety of instruments mentioned, even why in an epic with more than 200 named characters, both real and ficiotnal/mythological, Galileo's the only contemporary who gets a shout-out!. Like Philip Hoare or WG Sebald at their best (with a far more pointed focus, though), Moshenska weaves in his own opinions and feelings towards Milton and his works, and those are among the most insightful parts of the book. 17th Century ENgland is a period I find very interesting and given Milton's prominent role in advocating regicide and his efforts in Cromwell's subsequent government, this book is also a fascinating account of the period and its upheavals. I hadn't read Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained, and picked up this book only to read about the 17th Century, but his writing on these works is so evocative, that I also started reading Paradise Lost simultaneously, which made for a great reading experience-I could appreciate the epic a lot better, and it also enhanced my appreciation of what Moshenska was trying to illuminate about Milton's work. I would recommend doing that too-read this book and Paradise Lost at the same time, it makes for a deeply rewarding reading experience.
February 25, 2022
This is a very interesting and very different sort of biography of John Milton, if biography is the right word to use here. I’m kind of speechless really. I’m not sure what to say about this. I came away from it feeling like I don’t know more facts about the man, but I’m still left feeling closer to him, as if I understand him better though I'm not sure that I do.
This is a very deeply felt book about a very unique man. Maybe the title of this should have been “John Milton and Me,” since it feels as much like the author's inner journey as the outer journey of a 17th-century English poet. At the beginning of each chapter, we are shown a speculative moment in Milton’s life as if we were watching it happen before our eyes. Milton is always there, but it often feels like he’s hovering in the background as various ideas come to the fore, ideas about time, music, creativity, imagination, religious belief, freedom of speech, misogyny, and so on.
I feel like I’ve gotten to know John Milton better, including his heart of darkness. He was a very complicated man, clearly a genius, but I can’t honestly say that I admire him as a person.
This was worth my time.
This is a very deeply felt book about a very unique man. Maybe the title of this should have been “John Milton and Me,” since it feels as much like the author's inner journey as the outer journey of a 17th-century English poet. At the beginning of each chapter, we are shown a speculative moment in Milton’s life as if we were watching it happen before our eyes. Milton is always there, but it often feels like he’s hovering in the background as various ideas come to the fore, ideas about time, music, creativity, imagination, religious belief, freedom of speech, misogyny, and so on.
I feel like I’ve gotten to know John Milton better, including his heart of darkness. He was a very complicated man, clearly a genius, but I can’t honestly say that I admire him as a person.
This was worth my time.
January 27, 2022
Intriguing subject, unusual delivery…
This was not the type of biography I am used to. A factual rendering of dates, facts, people. That I know. Interesting tidbits and thoughts by the author usually kept to a minimum, included to provide insight where things are muddled or unknown, perhaps. This riveting biography of John Milton, however, offered something different…
John Milton was a mesmerizing figure to start with. I knew he was a poet and Paradise Lost was required reading in high school. I admit it, I will need many more readings of that book (with commentary) to fully appreciate it. Here though, were the secrets of the author. What was happening at the time of his life, what influenced his life so greatly? It was all here, plus a lot of the author’s personal reflections and the impact the poet and his work had on his own life.
Containing a wealth of details, this read was dense and required thoughtful reading. Well worth it though.
*I happily read this book
**Thank you to NetGalley
This was not the type of biography I am used to. A factual rendering of dates, facts, people. That I know. Interesting tidbits and thoughts by the author usually kept to a minimum, included to provide insight where things are muddled or unknown, perhaps. This riveting biography of John Milton, however, offered something different…
John Milton was a mesmerizing figure to start with. I knew he was a poet and Paradise Lost was required reading in high school. I admit it, I will need many more readings of that book (with commentary) to fully appreciate it. Here though, were the secrets of the author. What was happening at the time of his life, what influenced his life so greatly? It was all here, plus a lot of the author’s personal reflections and the impact the poet and his work had on his own life.
Containing a wealth of details, this read was dense and required thoughtful reading. Well worth it though.
*I happily read this book
**Thank you to NetGalley
July 11, 2023
This is by far the best biography I’ve ever read! Moshenska writes the most beautiful prose. I love how he organizes the book by 11 episodes in Milton’s life, and in these vignettes, he explores not only Milton’s life and work, but also how he, as a reader and scholar, engages with Milton and his legacy. He narrates his visits to important sites in M’s life, and he describes the artifacts he encounters in archives. I took a course in Milton as an undergrad, and I didn’t particularly like him (though I do admire his work). This book gave me an appreciation for him. I first encountered this book by reading a review in The Atlantic, and I bought it to use as a model for a biography I’m writing. I found it instructional and inspiring.
March 21, 2025
I generally find biographies very easy to put down and not pick up again, but this one kept me riveted from beginning to end. Possibly because it isn't so much a biography as a very careful and sensitive reader's encounter with a great writer whom he both loves and dislikes. The almost constant sense of personal engagement kept me interested where I would quickly have forgotten cold facts. Moshenska must be a wonderful teacher.
June 21, 2023
I now have a growing collection of literary biogs with day-glo covers, no doubt to off-set their dusty subjects. This is the best and handles the big day-glo question beautifully: "why bother with a difficult religious writer?" It even answers the big question for us dust-bound fans: "what keeps you coming back for more?"
Accessible for the newcomer and different enough for the old timers.
Accessible for the newcomer and different enough for the old timers.
January 10, 2025
Don't read this if you want to learn about the life of John Milton. Do read it if you want to know how the author felt when he visited sites of Milton's life. (I didn't). I also didn't want to read his (mans)explanation of why Milton's fifteen year-old wife left him when no historical record exists. (Note to author, the fact that she was fifteen might have been enough of a reason).
December 10, 2022
This supposed biography of Milton is an exercise in self-indulgence. It's full of imagined scenes, personal opinions, and even many pages that are about the author and not about Milton at all. I really wasted my money on this book.
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May 25, 2022Such an enjoyable read! A satisfying mix of biography, art history, church history, exegesis, literary cricism, travel log and memoir.
February 1, 2022
The Psalms were an important element in his education.
What? Milton and Galileo met??
Mary Shelley, who would later make the reworking of Paradise Lost’s exploration of creation and separateness central to her novel Frankenstein arrived at the monastery (Vallombrosa)soaked in sleet and the monks plied her with coffee and risolio. [Author recommends this Milton site, basis of his Paradise]
Milton was an influence on Thomas Jefferson
What? Milton and Galileo met??
Mary Shelley, who would later make the reworking of Paradise Lost’s exploration of creation and separateness central to her novel Frankenstein arrived at the monastery (Vallombrosa)soaked in sleet and the monks plied her with coffee and risolio. [Author recommends this Milton site, basis of his Paradise]
Milton was an influence on Thomas Jefferson
May 13, 2023
This unusual meditation on Milton's life and work is not the biography I expected. At times it reads like a Philippa Gregory novelization of a historical figure like Anne Boleyn, at other moments a meditation on close encounters with a beloved friend over decades, like Herman Gollob's Me and Shakespeare.
Revisiting Milton in this way reminds me of my decades of fun at Meredith teaching Milton's poetry to wonderful students like Becky Evans, Becky Fritz, Celeste Derey, Sara Beth Fulford, Anne Burke, Kimberly Harrelson, and dozens more.
As in my own Milton seminar, Moshenska spends much time on the early poetry, with a chapter each discussing On Time, At a Solemn Music, Psalm 114, Nativity Ode, Lycidas, an Italian sonnet to Diodati ("the love of Milton's life") and a Latin poem to Manso, his prose tracts on politics and religion and education and divorce, the sonnets on his blindness, and Samson Agonistes. Always in the background and sometimes foregrounded is the masterwork, Paradise Lost, which the entire book seems to circle.
I wish the book, though not brief, had added considerations of Comus and especially of Paradise Regained.
Moshenska's Milton is both classicist and Christian apologist, political activist and theologian, poet and prophet, masculine and feminine, lover of Italy and of Albion.
This scholar of Princeton, Cambridge and Oxford wears his learning and research loosely and shares them gently; it is not his knowledge but his passionate love for Milton the man and the poet that makes him a compelling guide.
Revisiting Milton in this way reminds me of my decades of fun at Meredith teaching Milton's poetry to wonderful students like Becky Evans, Becky Fritz, Celeste Derey, Sara Beth Fulford, Anne Burke, Kimberly Harrelson, and dozens more.
As in my own Milton seminar, Moshenska spends much time on the early poetry, with a chapter each discussing On Time, At a Solemn Music, Psalm 114, Nativity Ode, Lycidas, an Italian sonnet to Diodati ("the love of Milton's life") and a Latin poem to Manso, his prose tracts on politics and religion and education and divorce, the sonnets on his blindness, and Samson Agonistes. Always in the background and sometimes foregrounded is the masterwork, Paradise Lost, which the entire book seems to circle.
I wish the book, though not brief, had added considerations of Comus and especially of Paradise Regained.
Moshenska's Milton is both classicist and Christian apologist, political activist and theologian, poet and prophet, masculine and feminine, lover of Italy and of Albion.
This scholar of Princeton, Cambridge and Oxford wears his learning and research loosely and shares them gently; it is not his knowledge but his passionate love for Milton the man and the poet that makes him a compelling guide.
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