Event—Adult Education

Dangerous Debate in Milton’s "Paradise Lost"

While based on the biblical accounts of the creation and fall, Milton’s masterpiece is boldly designed to engage its narrator, characters, and readers in debates about the beginning of the story of the human race...

Cost and Registration Information

Early Registration Price (January 8 at 9 am** – January 25 at 4 pm): $220
Regular Registration Price (January 25 at 4 pm – first day of class): $242

** Registration opens online at 9 am. Phone registration will be accepted starting at 10 am.

Members, seniors, and students get a 10% discount.

Register Online

Seminar Description

While based on the biblical accounts of the creation and fall, Milton’s masterpiece is boldly designed to engage its narrator, characters, and readers in debates about the beginning of the story of the human race. This six-week seminar will explore Milton’s challenging ideas on God, Satan, time, space, good, evil, gender, sexuality, freedom, determinism—all of them embedded in the many discussions and debates Milton included in his epic.
Six sessions. E - $220, L - $242

Ronald Corthell is Dean Emeritus at Purdue University Northwest and a Newberry Scholar-in-Residence. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on early modern English literature and has published on Milton, Donne, and other early modern writers.

Materials List

Required:

  • John Milton, Paradise Lost, Norton, 2004. ISBN: 978-0393924282. Please note: this is the suggested edition for participants who do not own a copy of the work and need to purchase it. For those who already have a copy, any edition will work just fine.

First Reading:

  • For the first class, please read Books 1 and 2 of Paradise Lost.

This class is part of the Newberry’s Adult Education Seminars Program. Learn more about our registration procedures.