Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)

by John Milton
Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)  
published April 29th 2003 by Penguin Classics
first published 1667
binding Paperback
isbn 0140424393   (isbn13: 9780140424393)
pages 512
description Edited with an introduction and notes by John Leonard.
date added
12-21-06



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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 4613)



Brandon
bookshelves: classics
WOW! I had never read Milton until I was forced to in my Chaucer/Shakespeare/Milton class and I was blown away! I absolutely loved this epic poem! Milton was the best educated man in England at this time. He spoke or read every European language and even dabbled in Algonquin. He was part of the Cromwell government and wrote a lot of political tracts that contain the roots of much of the political philosophy that is the foundation of our country. In a scathing political pamphlet called The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates...more
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Keely
Keely rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
12/15/07

bookshelves: classics, epic-poetry, poetry
Read in November, 2005
Milton wrote this while blind, and claimed that the work was one of a divine inspiration which came to him in the night. If there is any modern text of the quality to be believably added into the Bible, it is this one. Indeed, as it outlines portions of that book which, thanks to the basis of combined mythic stories, are never explored. It also updated not only the epic, but the heroic form, and its questioning of the devil is a great philosophical exploration, even if it may be a failure, as I ...more
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Incendiaryrose
Incendiaryrose rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
04/24/08

bookshelves: finished-classics
Read in April, 2008
I hope no fan of Milton ever reads this review. And if you are a fan of Milton, go find one of many other reviews that will be a little better to your liking.

Had I read this book with the perspective of a student, or perhaps even as a potential instructor, I suspect my view of the twelve-book poem would have been far more favorable. As it was, I did not. Rather I read it as myself, a person who is rather sarcastic and critical of most things, but especially continuity errors.

I found m...more
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Patrick
Patrick rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
04/18/07

bookshelves: fiction, literary
Read in October, 1994
Portions of this book were assigned for my Brit Lit class. I read about half of the assigned portions. I was distracted at the time by various events in life and wasn't yet a very good student.

My professor had done his PhD work on Milton and taught with a contagious passion. So much passion that I decided, after the discussion was over, to buy the whole book. During our five day Fall break in my sophomore year I sat on the front lawn of my college and read Paradise Lost. Nonstop, gettin...more
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  1 comments

Brianne
Read in May, 2008
I am not Christian so I didn't have any of the guilt some readers might feel when they start to root for Satan at the start of this poem. He seems kind of dreamy in a tall, dark, handsome and...umm...evil sort of way. So yeah, if you believe in what the bible says, he really screwed things up for us. But if he hadn't, I probably wouldn't have so much fun when I drink. On the other hand, I am not a big fan of that whole sleeping with his own daughter, Sin and spawning Death and then Death sleepin...more
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Justin
02/21/08

Read in April, 2003
recommends it for: all english speaking and reading human beings
Among the best poems in human history.

I wrote my thesis on Milton's handling of passion in this work, using his other writings and his letters for context. Clearly I should not attempt to reproduce the argument here, but the idea is to point out that Milton changed the way we see the action of being moved by another. To be moved upon, pressed, changed, entered - to experience passion - had been condemned by great thinkers since the Greeks. The garden, in the western tradition was purely rati...more
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Stephanie
Read in February, 2008
Milton's use of prose and lexicon is superior. May times I found myself taken aback by his modern conceptions of one of this worlds oldest stories. Interestingly, I would say while Milton set out to explain God's reason for all that is, he instead exposed a multitude of new questions. For this I feel sorry for the man. He felt as if his world was lost, the strict protestant reign was once again coming to an end, and bawdiness and lewdness would rule society as they had in the past. This awe ins...more
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John
John rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
08/31/07

Read in August, 2007
recommends it for: Poetry readers, epics readers, classics readers, literary readers, religious readers
Normally I dislike poetry for its highly artificial language and deviations from quality storytelling, but some poets created true and undeniable beauty from the artform. Paradise Lost is such a work. It nails its subject matter, picking up after the fall of Satan, showing the first debate in the court of Hell, the original love of Adam and Eve, their fall, the new love between them once fallen, and most sweet of all, the love of Christ – it’s not a poem of original sin, but original ...more
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Meg
Meg rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
06/21/07

bookshelves: classics, had-to-for-college
in middle school i had seen this book lying around the house and for some reason it struck me as very impressive. i didn't ever want to read it but i wanted to give off the impression that i was the type of person who would read it. i did this with a few other books too (catcher in the rye, on the road, ect.) i carried it to school so that teachers would see it in my possession and prominently displayed it on my bedside table to let friends and family know.

after actually reading the book fo...more
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Clint
06/19/07

Read in August, 2007
recommends it for: People who like reading about the devil
Let's face it, John Milton was a closet devil-worshiper. Satan here is presented so sympathetically it's hard to think otherwise. He has the best lines, and even his actions would be laudable by most Christian standards (excepting, of course, starting a war in heaven). He never gives up, he fights for what he believes in, he's really clever, and he even pities humans for having to be his tools to get back at God. The good angels come off as such sissies and are always really smug and self-sa...more
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Molly
Molly rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
11/08/07

bookshelves: taught--hs-, undergraduate
Read in November, 2007
When I realized this would be a part of the British and Western Literature curriculum I am teaching at this high school, I was surprised--this piece is difficult, even for college readers. Even for this reader. But it is true what they say--teaching something allows you to learn so much more about the book, helps you retain it in ways you could not retain something simply read for pleasure or even as a student. Milton was an elusive writer for me, someone I battled with, struggled to simply u...more
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Ryan
06/13/08

bookshelves: literature
Whatever your opinions about religion, take Milton seriously, understand his politics, and Paradise Lost will set you at war with yourself. If you can deal with that, this is the best poem ever.

"High matter thou enjoin'st me O Prime of Men,
Sad task and hard, for how shall I relate
To human sense th' invisible exploits
Of warring spirits, how without remorse
The ruin of so many glorious once
And perfect while they stood, how last unfold
The secrets of another world perhaps
Not...more
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Henry
Henry rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
06/03/08

bookshelves: advisorybook07-08
I thought that this book was really good. ALthough i am not a really religious person, I really like biblical stories sometime, especially after reading The Inferno. I really like how this book focused on how the fued between God and Satan had caused chaos and disorder on Paradise, or Earth as we know it. I would recommend it to anybody who really like biblical stories especially the story of Adam and Eve because this book really help draw deeper into the story behind how the story of Adam and E...more
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Shawn
Shawn rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/19/08

Read in January, 2005
As Dante's Divine Comedy is considered the greatest poem of the Italian language, I consider Paradise Lost to be one of the greatest works of English literature. There is an inexplicable sense of the sublime when reading a work of someone who completely commands a language. The cosmology of the universe as imagined by Milton is breath-taking, especially considering 17th century people didn't have a collective consciousness of the universe as we do with cinematic special effects and NASA photo ga...more
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Jillian
Jillian rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
01/17/08

bookshelves: classics
Read in January, 2008
recommended to Jillian by: oh it's a classic-I always feel like I have to read these for so
recommends it for: people who like homework:P
Ok, FORCED myself to get through the book on tape. I still hate it and agree that the devil is definitely the hero-which really doesn't bother me, it's how repetitive the message is pounded in that irritates me. Holy crap, I get it, I get it...

I'm not a fan of this or the Inferno. I don't know-maybe I'm not smart enough for these but they seriously could use some translation-that's the only way I made it through the Art of War for example. I try to read the classics but unless they are ab...more
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Sarah
Sarah rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
06/04/07

dear lord was this thing HARD to get through. however, it borders on more fun than dante's inferno. why? because satan isn't a huge let down and kinda lame...like the inferno...chewing on judas...what? not very intimidating.

luckily, satan holds paradise lost together. he's amazingly complicated, extremely emo, and ready to mess up everything. god, on the other hand, dull, omnipotent, snoooooooze. milton's poetry is the hardest difficulty, yet brilliantly composed. just be patient, an...more
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Lilyanne
Lilyanne rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
10/23/07

Read in November, 2002
I have no religious background. It was Milton that got me asking all the big questions. I remember getting into this long debate with my Dad in 12th grade after I read Book 9 (the Fall) about why God wanted us to be ignorant. And then I understood that God’s greatest gift to man was that of free will (at least in Milton’s POV). And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Beautiful imagery of light and darkness. Brilliant narrative technique of telling the story directly after the ...more
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William
William rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/17/08

Read in May, 2008
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n...

In Paradise Lost Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked 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 briefly in danger of execution - ...more
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Shaindel
Shaindel rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
09/13/07

When I was in undergrad, I actually wanted to be a Milton scholar... We won't get into why I changed tack here. "Lycidas" is still the most beautiful poem--Ever.

"Paradise Lost" is what epic poetry is meant to be. It's influenced our society more than most people realize. It was Milton who first characterized the "Forbidden Fruit" as an apple; who first coined the term "All Hell broke loose"--when the demons are wreaking havoc in Pandemonium, and ...more
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Rachel
Rachel rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
02/13/08

Read in January, 2008
recommended to Rachel by: Sean
I read this book because my brother in law Sean said that it was his favorite book. I hadn't even heard of it before that. It definitely wasn't a fast read but it was interesting. I thought his view of Satan was really different. I've never thought of Satan as caring about anyone but himself, but Milton shows him as caring about his fellow devils and having inner stuggles about destroying Adam and Eve. I think the thing that turns Satan into such a hero is Milton's lack of understanding tha...more
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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 3.87 (3708 ratings)
avg rating (this edition): 3.83 (2988 ratings)
number of reviews: 278






other editions

Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions)
Paradise Lost: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Sources Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)