Northrop Frye on Milton and Blake

by Angela Esterhammer (Editor)

Overview

The writings of John Milton and William Blake were central to Northrop Frye's concept of the imaginative structure of Western literature and thought. He considered them the two most important poet-prophets in the English tradition.

This volume brings together all of Frye's writings on Milton and Blake from 1947 to 1987 - published and unpublished essays, reviews, commentaries, and public lectures - with the exception of Fearful Symmetry (published as Volume 14 of the Collected Works of Northrop Frye). During this time, Frye's engagement with Milton moved outward from the university into conferences, publications, and public lectures. His engagement with Blake, meanwhile, was a personal, intellectual, and spiritual quest, leading him to became the world authority on Blake in the mid-twentieth century.

Angela Esterhammer, a student of Frye's in the 1980s, has provided annotation and an introduction that demonstrates the poets' importance for Frye's literary and cultural criticism and provides a twenty-first-century perspective on the legacy of his work. This key volume of the Collected Works will be important to scholars interested in Frye as well as those of Milton and Blake.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802039194
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	10/01/2005
Series:	Collected Works of Northrop Frye , #16
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	530
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Angela Esterhammer is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Zurich, and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Western Ontario.

Table of Contents

Preface

Credits

Abbreviations

Introduction

Essays on Milton

1. Introduction to “Paradise Lost” and Selected Poetry and Prose
2. Literature as Context: Milton’s Lycidas
3. The Return of Eden: Five Essays on Milton’s Epics
   1. The Story of All Things
   2. The Breaking of the Music
   3. Children of God and Nature
   4. The Garden Within
   5. Revolt in the Desert
4. The Revelation to Eve
5. Agon and Logos
6. Tribute to Balachandra Rajan

Essays on Blake

1. Blake on Trial Again
2. Review of The Portable Blake
3. Blake’s Treatment of the Archetype
4. J.G. Davies’ The Theology of William Blake
5. Bernard Blackstone’s English Blake
6. Poetry and Design in William Blake
7. Introduction to Selected Poetry and Prose of William Blake
8. David Erdman’s Blake: Prophet against Empire
9. Notes for a Commentary on Milton
10. William Blake (I)
11. Blake after Two Centuries
12. Blake’s Introduction to Experience
13. Preface to Peter Fisher’s The Valley of Vision
14. The Road of Excess
15. Introduction to Blake: A Collection of Critical Essays
16. The Keys to the Gates
17. William Blake (II)
18. Comment on Adam and Eve and the Angel Raphael
19. Blake’s Reading of the Book of Job (I)
20. William Blake (III)
21. Blake’s Reading of the Book of Job (II)
22. Blake’s Biblical Illustrations
23. Blake’s Bible

Notes

Emendations

Index