Milton by Rudrum, Alan - 1970

Literary criticism has only recently come of age as an academic discipline, and the intellectual activity that, a hundred years ago, went into theological discussion now finds its most natural outlet in the critical essay. Amid a good deal that is dull or silly or pretentious, every year now produces a crop of critical essays which are brilliant and profound not only as contributions to the understanding of a particular author but as statements of an original way of looking at literature and the world. Hence, it often seems that the most useful undertaking for an academic publisher might be not so much to commission new books of literary criticism or scholarship as to make the best of what exists easily available. This at least is the purpose of the present series of anthologies, each of which is devoted to a single major writer.