What in Me Is Dark by Orlando Reade

What in Me Is Dark by Orlando Reade

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What in Me Is Dark by Orlando Reade

"Enlightening and enthusiastic." --Ed Simon, The New York Times Book Review

Now in paperback, a highly original hybrid of literary criticism and political history, telling of the enduring, surprising and ever-evolving relevance of Milton's epic poem through the scandalous life of its creator and the revolutionary lives that were influenced by it.


What in Me Is Dark tells the unlikely story of how Milton's epic poem came to haunt political struggles over the past four centuries, including the many different, unexpected, often contradictory ways in which it has been read, interpreted, and appropriated through time and across the world, and to revolutionary ends. The book focuses on twelve readers--including Malcolm X, Thomas Jefferson, George Eliot, Hannah Arendt, and C.L.R James--whose lives demonstrate extraordinary and disturbing influence on the modern age.

Drawing from his own experiences teaching Paradise Lost in New Jersey prisons, English scholar Orlando Reade deftly investigates how the poem was read by people embedded in struggles against tyranny, slavery, colonialism, gender inequality, and capitalist exploitation. It is experimental nonfiction at its finest; rich literary analysis and social, cultural and political history are woven together to make a clarifying case for the undeniable impact of the poem.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781662603402
Title What in Me Is Dark
Author Orlando Reade
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Astra Publishing House
Year published 2025-11-04
Number of pages 272
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.