"Offers new readings of Milton's major works, including Areopagitica, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, highlighting how Milton shifts the parlance of freedom and liberty from the arena of civic order to that of the individual conscience engaged in the process of choosing; this, in turn, invites readers to consider alternatives even to Milton's own positions"--

Susanne Woods is provost and professor of English emerita at Wheaton College (Massachusetts) and visiting scholar at the University of Miami. She also serves as a senior advisor to the Council of Independent Colleges. She has chaired three Modern Language Association divisions, served on the Executive Committee of the Milton Society of America, and served as chair of the Northeast Milton Seminar. She received the Inaugural Award for Special Achievement from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women for her founding of the Brown University Women Writers Project. In addition to three other books, Woods has published over 40 articles on Renaissance poetry and poetics.