This book must be removed from high school syllabi immediately, and become the reserve only of those who can truly appreciate it. No teenager has ever been capable of grasping the infinite layers of brilliance in these poems, and it is doing the work a disservice to dessimate it into Cliff's Notes. I adore Milton so much that if he were to punch me in the boobs after each page of Paradise Lost/Regained, I would keep turning and turning until the bittersweet end.

As Blake said, "The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it."

Milton's work is really, really good. It has epic gun battles between angels and demons, and titanic expressions of sheer will. Most remarkable, though, is Satan's character as a rebel hero. Milton's reliance on the apocrypha and the treasure trove of literary stories as his source material do h More...

[*I won't mark spoilers but will assume that if you read this you have read Paradise Lost or know the story of the creation of the world and the fall of man as recounted in the book of Genesis.]

"Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way." - Book XII Lines 645-649

I know what this book is usually based around a More...

To be a fan of classic literature it is imperative to read, at least once, the powerful poetic epic that is "Paradise Lost". As far as "Paradise Regained", well...this story is not so illuminating, but is still a beautifully written poem. Most everyone living in a Western Civilization already knows the story: Satan is expelled from Heaven and decides to defile the new world God created. He sneaks into the Garden of Eden and finds a way to ruin God's plans by tempting Eve to eat from the tree of More...

What can I say? I suppose I felt guilty giving "Paradise Lost" anything less than four stars! I'm certainly no serious judge of poetry, epic or other, but I'd never read Milton and felt it was time. It's amazing what you learn about a piece of literature without ever having read it. So with all the critical background noise of graduate school, I finally have Milton under my belt. The poem is impressive, to say the least, and enlightening on many levels, the most intriguing to me being Milton's v More...

Paradise Lost is bar-none the greatest work of literature in the English language, and I suspect it stands up pretty well against what the rest of the world has to offer. Milton took a handful of Bible verses and expanded them into 10,000 near-perfect lines on the nature of sin, temptation, good and evil. In it, he creates a powerfully sympathetic Lucifer, posits the single most persuasive argument for Human free-will ever attempted, and paints the fall of Man as the greatest tragedy of all time More...

4 stars because there are imperfections in how the characters and their motives are written, and even how the simple facts of the events happened. I mean, you can tell that Milton read and searched and knew the Bible, which by far most people who try to retell Bible stories like this have not done and do not know, but I think if he'd done just a little more reading for, say, another half hour with regard to some sections, he'd have gotten it right, and so even better. But 4 stars because he real More...

So, I do understand that this is a great classic. I can even see why. I don't think it stands the test of time, however. I found myself, nine times out of ten, laughing at the reactions and the situations, finding most of the figures portrayed in the book to be small children (and sometimes, they would come across as gangsters but I think that's my own special spin on this tale). Now, this is not a bad thing, per say. Speaking as someone who doesn't enjoy reading old English, the reactions of th More...

Paradise Lost is a poem of the events leading to the fall of Satan, and his scheming to deceive Man to disobeying God as told in the Book of Genesis. Paradise Regained is a poem of Jesus' forty days in the desert, and how Satan attempts to sway him. Being a casual reader, I found this a very heavy going read, with long and convoluted verses that can get confusing if you let your concentration slip, or if you need to stop reading for whatever reason. I found myself going back and re-reading verse More...

Ahem, what I meant to say was: I was not made for reading epic poetry...it is beyond me.

I don't think I'll give a full review of this poem, because surely at this point it doesn't need it! But I wanted to get down a few ideas that I had while reading through it.

One of the things that I think is so great about this poem, is that I'm not totally convinced that Milton had complete control over what he was doing. And I don't say that as an insult. Rather it's as if so many things were speaking through him gaining entrance into the poem.

One of these ideas that I think he plays with is t More...

This book took me a long time to read. Three months to be exact. It’s some seriously dense epic poetry. Some of Paradise Lost reminded me a lot of Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, especially the lines about flames that produced darkness and the idea of Satan doing the opposite of God but God turns it to good anyway. It was hard to get used to the language, but once I did I really liked how Milton was able to use two meanings for a lot of words – the literal meaning and a figurative meaning. It was in More...

I read this while preparing for a cumulative exam in English literature. I had only touched Milton in a survey course of British Literature of the Renaissance. I must have gone to the bar the night before that lecture because nothing seemed familiar. I spent the better part of two weeks, sitting at work, sitting in cafes, sitting in the library, sitting in my car, announcing Milton's convoluted lines of poetry à haute voix. This was the only way I could understand what was going on, like I was p More...

Screw you, Paradise Lost! *fist shaking*

Ok, now that that is out of my system, let me tell you: reading this epic poem with my book group at Goodreads has been one of the most frustrating literary experiences of my life. So when I say "screw you, PL" I only kind of mean PL. I also mean, insane book club people. I am never moderating a discussion on a theological anything, ever, ever, ever. Ugh.

MOVING ON.

Paradise Lost is a 17th century epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion More...

I abuse goodreads terribly. Rather than contributing to the community with excellent book reviews, I use is as a place for organizing my thoughts while I read. There is a lot that I think about as I read Paradise Lost. I mean it's well done of course, who an I to contend with that. But it falls so short of what it is trying to represent, that it disappoints me somewhat, particularly in light of how influential it is. It is a child's version of the battles of Satan and man, a Disney-esqe version More...

I didn’t rate this based on it’s sexist nature: I’m well aware of how Eve got the shaft, all womanhood is to blame for the Fall of man, God’s old and white and has a dick, blah blah blah. I rated it based on the unbelievable talent of Milton’s jargon and the highly memorable, intangible imagery. Mythologically it’s such an epic story that I’d be crazy to let misogyny alone demote it. Besides, you could argue that Milton is taking a “sympathy for the devil” stance (authority should always be ques More...

I bought this book in class 9 in school, but let it languish on my bookshelf for more than a decade! Finally, I think I am able to make space for a sustained read.

The poem portrays the human predicament, vis-a-vis man and god and the question of faith in a medieval christian context.

The poem has been the subject of controversy amidst 19th and 20th century critics for its rather one-sided and chauvinistic depiction of Eve.

However, there's more to this book than mere controversy. It is a reward More...

For those who only think they know the story, and especially for those who seem to think of Paradise Lost as merely "Biblical fanfic," I would invite those people to spend some time in the mind of the literary genius of Milton through this work. And as a bonus, you get the sequel for free, as well as a detailed bio of Milton so as to place these works in the historical and spiritual contexts in which they were written - a time of ecclesiastical upheaval. Getting the proper perspective makes all More...

A masterful piece of literature. It purports to be in the same poetic style as Homer and Virgil, and it doesn't dissapoint. The first part is the story of the War in Heaven, Lucifer cast out, the creation, the Garden of Eden,and the fall of Adam. The second part, much shorter and simpler, is the tale of Jesus and his three temptations in the desert. Though these stories are very familiar to most Christians, the style and the poetry are what this is really about. Milton's voice gives new and high More...

There is so much to say about this book, but I will be as brief as possible, and say it is my favorite book. Milton provides you with a story that provokes deep, visceral thinking, a kind of questioning which isn't found too often in the present culture.

This is for research purposes (and I suppose I'll have to read The Book of Enoch as well). Angel books are tricky, and I don't want to go down in YA history as one of the authors that totally fucked it up.

This is a highly enjoyable read. I find particularly interesting and bemusing is that Milton was unable to keep the devil from being the most interesting character.

Read the original even though you'll wade at times because of language that is ponderous to us. It is worth the literary and cultural experience.

I took a Milton class back in the good old days of BYU and fell in love with his writings. It didn't hurt that my teacher was a huge fan. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are amazingly written and show that Milton had a glimpse into the Plan of Salvation far before restored times. I really enjoyed how he writes Eve and Satan is given a depth that shows Milton believed him to be a very real force. I would read it as a student edition though or with some kind of Cliff's notes so that you don't More...

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." John Milton

Clearly a classic. Milton's story is sweeping, comprehensive, epic, and tender.

An all-time favorite. I have read this over and over since high school.

Paradise Lost is amazing. Paradise Regained didn't do it for me.

first encountered this through his dark materials, good times.

I know this is one of the great classics of all time, but I have never been able to get over the portrayal of Eve. Honestly, the first time I read it (granted, I was way young, maybe a freshman in high school or before), I thought God made Eve mentally challenged because she was so incredibly stupid..... It didn't occur to me until later that Eve was the projection John Milton's notion of the ideal woman: subserviant, obedient, non-threatening, totally dependent, etc. Despite its other many sple More...