Paradise Lost Penguin Classics
In "Paradise Lost" Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast awe-inspiring cosmos, and ranging across huge tracks of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the center 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 briefly 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 expose the cruelty of Christianity. John Leonard's revised edition of "Paradise Lost" contains full notes which elucidate Milton's biblical, classical, and historic allusions and discuss his vivid, highly original use of language and blank verse. Paperback. From Penguin Classics. 512 pages
