Paradise Lost
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- English literature students or readers who need to study classic epics
- Readers interested in Western religion, myth, and the theme of free will
- Literature lovers willing to read long poems slowly and appreciate grand-scale narrative
- Researchers who need public-domain English texts for textual analysis or citation
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking light entertainment who are unaccustomed to the length of long poems
- First-time readers lacking a Western religious background who are unwilling to consult notes
- Readers who prefer modern vernacular narrative and have limited patience for complex syntax
Reading tips
- Read the introduction or book summaries first to establish the overall structure, then proceed through the text book by book.
- Keep a notebook to record recurring images such as light, darkness, freedom, and bondage.
- Read Satan's soliloquies and key dialogues closely, analyzing his rhetoric against his actions.
- Use an annotated edition or introductory material to lower the barrier of allusions and theological background.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
FAQ
Can I understand this epic without having read the Bible?
How difficult is the original English of this work?
Should I read it straight through from beginning to end?
Comments
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About the author
John Milton (1608–1674) is a major poet and polemical writer in English literary history. Nine of his works are held here, including the long poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, the masque Comus, the elegy Lycidas, the shorter poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, the prose tract Areopagitica on freedom of the press, and the collections The Poetical Works of John Milton and Milton: Minor Poems. Learned in both classical and Christian traditions, he is known for grand religious themes, stately blank verse and an eloquent style. Paradise Lost, drawing on the biblical creation story, explores free will, obedience and fall, and has deeply influenced later English poetry; Areopagitica offers a classic argument for freedom of speech and publication. Comus and Lycidas display his early gifts in masque and elegy, while the shorter poems show his versatility. Public information on his life dates and nationality is limited and is not speculated upon here.
