The Awakening of Intelligence

John Milton

Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained

These controversial epic poems demonstrate Milton's genius for fusing sense and sound, classicism and innovation, narrative and drama in profound explorations of the moral problems of God's justice-and what it truly means to be human.

Homer, P. V. Jones

Homer: Odyssey: A Companion to the Translation of Richmond Lattimore

Peter Jones provides a line-by-line commentary on Homer's Odyssey that explains the factual details, mythological allusions, and Homeric conventions that a student or general reader could not be expected to bring to an initial encounter with the Odyssey. It also illuminates epic style, Homer's methods of composition, the structure of work, and his characterization. The introduction describes the features of oral poetry and looks at the history of the text of the Odyssey. The commentary based on Richard Lattimore's translation, since it is both widely read and technically accurate, but it will be equally relevant to other translations. This series of Companions is designed for readers who approach the authors of the ancient world with little or no knowledge of Latin or Greek, or of the classical world. The commentaries accompany readily available translations, and the series should be of value to students of classical civilization studies, and history, for GCSE and A Level and at university. Each volume in the series includes the following: an introduction to the author and his work, with reference to scholarly views; a commentary providing explanation of detail, historical ...

Deborah Parker

Bronzino: Renaissance Painter as Poet

Bronzino's stature as one of the great painters of the Florentine Renaissance has long been recognized. By contrast, his literary achievements as a poet have been neglected. This is the first modern study to focus on the poetry of Bronzino. Seeking to clarify the meaning of Bronzino's poems, Deborah Parker argues that they are considerable literary achievements. Importantly, she demonstrates that our understanding of Bronzino's paintings is incomplete without careful attention to his poetry. Click to view Deborah Parkers lecture on Bronzino at the Metropolitan Museum of Art