Professor Douglas Bush of Harvard University comments: “Mr. Stein writes with full sympathy - that is, he understands Milton’s beliefs and ideas and respects them, and feels no need either to condescend or defend - and that alone distinguishes his criticism from the work of other ‘modernist’ critics of poetry. On the other side, he goes beyond most Milton scholars through having an acute and sensitive insight into Milton’s expressions of those beliefs and ideas, and he continually throws fresh light upon Milton’s epic and stylistic technique.”

John Crowe Ransom, editor of the Kenyon Review, says: “Our reception of Milton is still far from complete, and Arnold Stein is an original critic who has new insights into the poet’s work; on the ‘answerable style’ of the verse I think he has written the best statement yet.”