Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)
John Milton's celebrated epic poem exploring the cosmological, moral and spiritual origins of man's existence
A Penguin Classic
In Paradise Lost Milton produced poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time, populated by a memorable gallery of grotesques. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked, innocent Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and in danger of execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men', or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
A Penguin Classic
In Paradise Lost Milton produced poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time, populated by a memorable gallery of grotesques. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked, innocent Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and in danger of execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men', or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Community Reviews
Maybe audiobooks aren't for me. Maybe epic poems aren't for me. I restarted the audio 3 or 4 times thinking I had missed something only to eventually realize that the poem was repeating and I couldn't tell if the repeat was from the poem or from a discussion of what this section of the poem was about. This was tedious.
Very cool.
Whether you’re a god enjoyer or not, Milton lets you put on your theologian cap for a while to consider the morality of the main players in the book of Genesis. While his objective is ostensibly to ‘justify the ways of God to man,’ there’s no lack of support for the opposing side: the justice of God’s decisions is often left more than a little wanting. Milton goes to greater lengths, I think, to justify to the reader the ways of Satan, who originally rebelled against heaven not out of malice, but to dethrone God’s authoritative regime (which, coincidentally enough, smells like Milton’s real-life oppositions to British monarchy). Even Satan’s rebellion, however, seeks to put himself on a throne above others, so his actions are not without reproach by the same token. The ending perhaps reinforces Milton’s more pro-religious themes, but the political underpinnings are hard to ignore. On top of this ‘endless moral maze’ is a narrative so broad as to earn the title of Epic, while intimately discussing humanity within the divine.
I didn’t much care for the ending, which was in essence an upcoming episode preview for the rest of the Bible. I also have no background or knowledge of ancient Greek writings, so pretty much all of the Greek analogies were lost on me.
Whether you’re a god enjoyer or not, Milton lets you put on your theologian cap for a while to consider the morality of the main players in the book of Genesis. While his objective is ostensibly to ‘justify the ways of God to man,’ there’s no lack of support for the opposing side: the justice of God’s decisions is often left more than a little wanting. Milton goes to greater lengths, I think, to justify to the reader the ways of Satan, who originally rebelled against heaven not out of malice, but to dethrone God’s authoritative regime (which, coincidentally enough, smells like Milton’s real-life oppositions to British monarchy). Even Satan’s rebellion, however, seeks to put himself on a throne above others, so his actions are not without reproach by the same token. The ending perhaps reinforces Milton’s more pro-religious themes, but the political underpinnings are hard to ignore. On top of this ‘endless moral maze’ is a narrative so broad as to earn the title of Epic, while intimately discussing humanity within the divine.
I didn’t much care for the ending, which was in essence an upcoming episode preview for the rest of the Bible. I also have no background or knowledge of ancient Greek writings, so pretty much all of the Greek analogies were lost on me.
What can I say? Simply that this is my favourite Satanic Epic of all time. Everyone with an interest in the “Left Hand Path”, or poetry in general, should definitely read it.
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