9/John Milton. His Life and Work. “Paradise Lost

John Milton was a great English writer of the 17th Century. Milton was also a great believer in liberty. Milton was born in Bread Street in London on 9 December 1608. His mother was called Sarah. From an early age John Milton Junior loved music. From the age of 12 he was sent to St Paul's school. In 1625 Milton went to Cambridge University. After leaving university Milton continued studying at home. He also wrote poetry. In 1629 Milton wrote a poem called On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. In 1634 a masque by John Milton called Comus was performed. (In the early 17th century a masque was a form of entertainment for the rich. It involved, drama, music and dance). In 1638 a famous poem by Milton called Lycidas was published.

In 1638-39 Milton traveled in France and Italy and he met Galileo. In 1639 Milton returned to England he became a schoolteacher in London.

In 1642 civil war began between king and parliament. John Milton was a strong supporter of freedom so naturally he supported parliament. In 1642 Milton wrote pamphlets attacking episcopacy (the belief that the church should have bishops). In 1643 he wrote a pamphlet arguing that divorce should be allowed and in 1644 he wrote a pamphlet in favor of freedom of speech. Following the execution of King Charles I in 1649 John Milton wrote material supporting the Commonwealth (the republican government that ruled from 1649 to 1660). Milton also worked for the government translating documents into Latin.

Tragically in 1652 Milton went blind. However in 1667 his great work Paradise Lost was first printed. It deals with the rebellion of Adam and Eve against God and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. In 1671 another work by Milton, Paradise Regained was published. Meanwhile Milton was married 3 times. John Milton died on 8 November 1674 aged 65. He was buried in St Giles Church in Cripplegate, London. Today he is remembered as the greatest English writer of the 17th century.

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification.^[1] It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.^[2]

The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men".

10/ Enlightenment. 1. The Literature of the Period. Daniel Defoe.

The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) is the era from the 1650s or earlier to 1776 in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. It was promoted by "philosophes" and local thinkers in urban coffeehouses, salons and masonic lodges. It challenged the authority of institutions that were deeply rooted in society, such as the Catholic Church; there was much talk of ways to reform society with toleration, science and skepticism.

Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 in London, England. He became a merchant and participated in several failing businesses, facing bankruptcy and aggressive creditors. He was also a prolific political pamphleteer which landed him in prison for slander. Defoe died in 1731.

Having always been interested in politics, Defoe published his first literary piece, a political pamphlet, in 1683. He continued to write political works, working as a journalist, until the early 1700s. Many of Defoe's works during this period targeted support for King William III, also known as "William Henry of Orange." Some of his most popular works include The True-Born Englishman, which shed light on racial prejudice in England following attacks on William for being a foreigner; and the Review, a periodical that was published from 1704 to 1713, during the reign of Queen Anne, King William II's successor. Political opponents of Defoe's repeatedly had him imprisoned for his writing in 1713.

Late in life he turned his pen to fiction and wroteRobinson Crusoe, one of the most widely read and influential novels of all time.

Robinson Crusoe first published on 25 April 1719. This first edition credited the work's fictional protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents.

The novel is a fictional autobiography of a young man named Robinson Crusoe, who dreams of going on sea voyages. Defying his father, Crusoe sets out on an adventure that was to change his life. On the journey, misfortune strikes and the ship is attacked by Turkish pirates and Crusoe is taken as a slave. After two years of slavery, he dramatically escapes and lands on an uninhabited island. The rest of the book tells us how Crusoe learns to live his life on an island for 27 seven years. While on the island, he finds a human foot print which is not his, and suspects to be that of cannibal barbarians. Crusoe even witnesses a human sacrifice where one of the men escapes from the barbaric act. Robinson rescues him, and names him ‘Friday’, in remembrance of the day he saved him. Friday is taught to speak English and becomes a great help and companion to Crusoe in his otherwise lonely life. Robinson finally escapes when a ship that has been a victim of mutiny arrives on the island. He helps the captain and the prisoners to retrieve the ship and eventually sets off back to London.