Paradise Lost and the Cosmological Revolution
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 246
ISBN-13: 9781107033603
Subjects: Milton, john, 1608-1674; Galilei, galileo, 1564-1642; Literature and science; English literature, history and criticism
Description: "This volume brings John Milton's Paradise Lost into dialogue with the challenges of cosmology and the world of Galileo, whom Milton met and admired: a universe encompassing space travel, an earth that participates vibrantly in the cosmic dance, and stars that are 'world[s] / Of destined habitation'. Milton's bold depiction of our universe as merely a small part of a larger multiverse allows the removal of hell from the center of the earth to a location in the primordial abyss. In this wide-ranging work, Dennis Danielson lucidly unfolds early modern cosmological debates, engaging not only Galileo but also Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, and the English Copernicans, thus placing Milton at a rich crossroads of epic poetry and the history of science"--