John Milton holds a crucial strategic position on the intellectual and ideological map of literary studies. In this provocative and liberating study, John P. Rumrich contends that contemporary critics have contributed to the invention of a monolithic or institutional Milton: censorious preacher, aggressive misogynist, and champion of the emerging bourgeoisie. Rumrich exposes the historical inaccuracies and logical inconsistencies that sustain this orthodoxy, and argues instead for a more complex Milton who was able to accommodate uncertainty and doubt.

Preface and acknowledgements; Abbreviations and note on translations; 1. Introduction: the invented Milton; 2. The question of context; 3. Responses and their vicissitudes; 4. Comus: a fit of the mother; 5. The art of generation; 6. Culture and anarchy; Notes; Index.