Even a dozen critical essays, representative of the postmodern wave that has largely displaced liberal humanism in English studies in the years in which they were written (1970-96), do not dethrone Satan as the flawed hero of Milton's masterwork. Contributors vivisect, yet manage to convey, the contemporary relevance of the seminal 17th century epic poem with interpretations from Marxist/ historicist, feminist, psychoanalytic, and poststructuralist approaches. The editor provides a concisely informative introduction to the English Revolution and modern contexts for deconstructing . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)
Two historical novels with elements of fantasy and folklore will bring readers from the battlefields of World War One to the last years of the Qing Dynasty in China. Katherine Arden’s The Warm Hands of Ghosts shows the terrors of war and the unsettling and fantastical things that can appear in its shadow. Arden joins […]
“I feel like I could actually follow you through this journey and come out of it changed rather than abused by my ignorance.” The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland blends memoir, history and culture in a study of the experience of blindness and how it effects both the individual and society as a […]
Time magazine, reporting on a 1989 plane crash, offhandedly mentioned that one passenger had been reading an Arthur C. Clarke novel. Clarke clipped the story and mailed it to Isaac Asimov, along with a note that the unfortunate reader should have brought along an Asimov novel, as it would have put him to sleep. Asimov’s response? “Oh, no, […]