Two last books with titles taken from the works of John Milton. I’m confident the first one is a Miltonic quote, the second less so. The first of the two is ‘In Dubious Battle’ by John Steinbeck, a dark, hard read for oppressive times. Written by Steinbeck in 1936 the novel tells a bitter and brutal story of two labour union organisers who attempt to intervene to organise and support striking fruit-pickers in California.
The title, which seemed to me, to be exceptionally apt for the novel is from ‘Paradise Lost’. Satan expresses his own account of his rebellion, “me preferring, His utmost power with adverse power opposed In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven And shook his throne.”
I did pause to reflect, because I did feel that the title was so suitable for the novel, how deep an association an author means the reader to make between the title and the text.
The other title was ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’ by Charles Dickens. It gave me great pleasure to reread this over the last few days despite it being such an unseasonal read. The novel is one of the most successful Christmas books Dickens wrote and very charming it is. In his poem ‘Il Penseroso’ Milton writes the line ‘Save the cricket on the hearth.’ I don’t know if Dickens did derive his title from Milton but the cricket does have a symbolic role in the novel as the exemplification of the kindness of the domestic world.
The Solitary Reader 