"This study is a contribution to the literary and intellectual history of early modern Europe, with Paradise Lost as the centerpiece.

The story to be told is the initial stage (ca. 1650) in the decline, and eventually the unlamented fall, of the body of inchoate theories and sentiments that goes by the name of "humanism." Milton's notion of embodying a vindication of God's justice in a pastiche of classical epic is far more radical and innovative than scholars and critics have suspected, in three respects.".

"The book is divided into three parts supplying detailed historical and interpretative arguments for each of these three aspects of Milton's innovation. A fourth and concluding part supplies reasons for a mixed verdict on the whole Miltonic enterprise: counsel for the defense ultimately fails to secure acquittals; for reasons less paradoxical than they seem at first glance, Paradise Lost's failure as an exercise in humanistic theodicy is the key to its resounding success as a work of art."--BOOK JACKET.