Paradise Lost, Book IX

by John Milton, Steven Croft (Contributor), Anna Baldwin (Editor)

One of a series designed to motivate and encourage students who may be working on certain writers for the first time. Each text includes notes to explain literary and historical allusions, tasks to help students explore themes and issues, and suggestions for further reading.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, School, Read For School, English Literature

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1667

About the author

People best know John Milton, English scholar, for Paradise Lost , the epic poem of 1667 and an account of fall of humanity from grace.

Beelzebub, one fallen angel in Paradise Lost, of John Milton, lay in power next to Satan.

Belial, one fallen angel, rebelled against God in Paradise Lost of John Milton.


John Milton, polemicist, man of letters, served the civil Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote in blank verse at a time of religious flux and political upheaval.

Prose of John Milton reflects deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. He wrote in Latin, Greek, and Italian and achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644) in condemnation of censorship before publication among most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and the press of history.

William Hayley in biography of 1796 called and generally regarded John Milton, the "greatest ... author," "as one of the preeminent writers in the ... language," though since his death, critical reception oscillated often on his republicanism in the centuries. Samuel Johnson praised, "with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the ... mind," though he, a Tory and recipient of royal patronage, described politics of Milton, an "acrimonious and surly republican."

Because of his republicanism, centuries of British partisanship subjected John Milton.

Reviews

[ellie]

no❤️

[dilara]

I guess I like Satan the most!
Also bombastic side eye to Adam and Eve...

[Paula]

enough

[Fred]

I was wrong to say Milton was unbearable! This was an interesting read, full of philosophical debates about who was truly to blame for the fall of Man in Eden. And the poetry is admittedly very impressive.

[Rose]

Book 9 really stood out to me from the 2773773 other retellings of the bible xxx

[lucy]

3.5 ⭐️

they were both dumb but i appreciate their dedication to blaming each other

[vin]

Well, I couldn't really connect with the catholic guilt that's pervading throughout the narrative but hey, misogyny, our old friend!! 😃 The reiteration of traditional gender 'roles' goes hard with this one.
I wonder though, was satan hot? 👀 (pun intended, don't come at me 😂)

[alice mabel]

Uni

[Lily]

A Misogynist's fan fiction

[millie]

Milton was doing TEWW much when he created a whole new poetic structure to write this in, shoutout to miltonic I guess

[Anastasia]

Honest review coming up here, deal with it. Yes, it is a fine piece of literary work and the epic similes are 'epic' (I hope you appreciated that) but I'm disappointed in Milton as an author. I felt that the book was lacking and that Satan was the only interesting character in the whole of Book 9. As a modern reader I found it hard to look past the limited view of Eve and even Adam in some cases, the content of the story wasn't good enough to help me look past that. The 2 stars are in fact for the language which is amazing, if you can understand it in the first place.

[Olivia]

Book IX in which Milton portrays the actual act of "Man's first disobedience", i.e. eating of the forbidden fruit.

This truly is an amazing piece of literature. It is quite difficult to get the sense of because of the "Latinate English" and confusing sentence structures. I would actually recommend getting it on audio book.

[Gabi Leoncini]

Liked this a lot more than I would have thought!

[Emma]

2.5 stars because I didn’t enjoy reading it - I feel as though I had a better understanding of this poem’s concepts given that I had more content from other sources such as Sparknotes and university lecturers on Youtube. The most obvious way to describe this section of Paradise Lost would be through outlining the premise: it follows the Fall of Man due to Eve’s disobeying God by eating the Forbidden Fruit.

The classic traits of Milton that I read about are obvious throughout, with the exaggerated sensory descriptions of the Garden and the bounteous nature it holds. It is interesting to view this section through a feminist lens because on the one hand, Eve was elevated by both Adam and Satan (being described as “divine”). Yet on the other hand, she is blamed for the Fall; Adam goes as far as saying he was bewitched by her into eating the Fruit. Reading this definitely gave me plenty of food for thought.

[Snowwy]

Satan has daddy issues. Yes, I said it. I mean come on. Not only does he create an army to fight God ( his creator ) but he also wants to corrupt God's favourite creation, because he no longer is God's favourite.

Eve is not the one that brings destruction to the whole of mankind. She is tricked into it. Anyone would want some time away from their partner just like she does. I can't blame her for that. She tried to be strong but Satan's speech was more powerful.

Overall, I think that it is a good book. Amazing language used throughout, and many historical links that are present in the writing which I loved

[Amber]

The problem with reading Paradise Lost really comes from the fact that most of us as readers have been so inundated with stories that sound like the story here that reading the original comes across as redundant. We all know the story, Milton is a decent enough writer, so it makes no real impression. I read this once as a teenager and was riveted by it. I read it again during quarantine and was just left trudging through it. My advice, read it once when you're young, enjoy it and move on.

[bente]

Dear John Milton,

Writing's not easy. That's why Grammarly can help. This work is grammatically correct, but it's wordy, and hard to read. Grammarly's cutting edge technology helps you craft compelling, understandable writing that makes an impact on your reader. Much better. Are you ready to give it a try? Installation is simple and free. Visit Grammarly.com today!

(p.s. this is a joke, his writing style just did not do it for me and my poor attention span)

[Stevie]

Worst book I’ve had to read for my English major yet.
Slightly difficult to understand. There were parts where I genuinely had no clue who was talking.
Eve was blamed for everything even though Adam could’ve made decisions for himself and not eaten the damn fruit. Probably could’ve blamed the snake too.
Truly the most boring piece of literature I’ve read yet for my English classes/major. So boring I couldn’t understand some stuff.

[mahlaqa]

Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate:
Earth felt the wound.

[Renee Sarah Stevelmans]

I actually quite like this book and understood it better than book I. This story is also one of my favourite retellings of the fall of Adam and Eve, mostly because Eve is not selected as the sole wrongdoer.

[Henriette]

this was easier to understand than i though it would, and the story was okay.

[˗ ˏ ˋ Lili ˎ ˊ ˗]

4.5*
My favorite book of Paradise Lost.

[Madison Brown]

Really, really good. i found that the character of Satan was more interesting than both adam and eve combined if I'm honest

[Gabi Leoncini]

I read this in first year & now in third year: it's definitely the most compelling PL Book I've read so far (3 more to go!)

[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️]

“I now must change / Those Notes to Tragic”

[Blanca]

Eve is just like me, I also hate to take the blame. Anyways, this book was a snoozefest oh my god.

[Emily Ford]

1.5

[Yoohan]

Read this for English class. No rating.

[anika]

slightly confusing but good. props to adam and eve from blaming each other

[Rhianna]

My toxic trait is that this is probably my favourite book studied throughout the entire English Lit course—