Paradise Lost (Blackwell Edition)

by John Milton

edited by Barbara K. Lewalski

(Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2007)

Paperback, 351 Pages, Epic Poetry

ISBN: 9781405129299, US$31.95

"None ever wished it longer than it was."

—Samuel Johnson

From the Cover: This authoritative edition of Milton’s great epic, Paradise Lost, presents the poem in the original language (spelling and punctuation) of its 1674 publication. It thereby recovers pronunciations, sonorities, and rhythms often lost in modernized editions. Barbara K. Lewalski offers readers the opportunity to experience the brilliance and beauty of Paradise Lost as that poem was experienced by Milton’s contemporaries. Beginning with a brief historical and critical introduction, Lewalski also provides judicious explanatory annotations that clarify names and places, identify biblical and literary allusions, and gloss unfamiliar words. She includes as well a textual apparatus of variant readings, a select bibliography, and several illustrations from the 1688 Folio edition. Lewalski’s Paradise Lost is the first of three paperback volumes presenting authoritative texts of the complete poetry and prose of John Milton in original language, thereby making these texts readily available to students and scholars.

My Review: If you were to ask me, Bryan … which book do you consider to be THE DEFINITIVE work of Western Literature in the last half-century?

My answer would come, without hesitation: Paradise Lost by John Milton.

If you were to ask me, Bryan … which ONE book do you think has had MORE INFLUENCE on Western Literature in the last half-century?

Again, my answer would come, without hesitation: Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Why Paradise Lost? I can hear you asking. Well … let me tell you why. Until last September I had never cracked the spine of anything by John Milton. I was aware of him. I knew he was a poet. I knew he was a scholar. I knew he was a religious revolutionary and a political revolutionary. I knew he had written Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained … but, still, I had yet to delve into the oeuvre of Milton. That is, until last September.

Like most English majors, I am a masochist at heart. So, when I had the chance to register for a class simply titled MILTON, I figured, why not. It was being offered by a professor I had had previously and enjoyed, so all the better. If I learn a little about Milton along the way, alright then; after all, it can’t hurt my ambitions for Grad School and beyond to be versed a little in Milton, can it? So, I signed up and we after some initial getting-to-know-yous with Milton, the Professor asked the question: “Why take a Milton class? Why did you sign up?”

By this time we had already read one or two of Milton’s poems and I had noticed a very Gothic-like echo to them. Something that was reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe or H.P. Lovecraft. So my answer was “Being interested in Contemporary American Gothic writing, I wanted to get back to the source of it all. I wanted to see what the granddaddy of ‘horror’ authors had to say. I wanted to meet Milton’s Satan.”

And thus it began.

I will start by saying this: Paradise Lost is not an easy book to read. It is not something that I am sure I would have understood had I not been in class and had been simply reading it on my own. Milton’s language, form, style, imagery, symbolism all would have undone me in a normal “leisure reading” setting. It was nice to know that if I had a question about something I had read, all I had to do was jot the question down, wait a day (or four … the class was Tuesday Thursday) and I could probably get it answered. And believe me, there were lots of questions that come from reading Paradise Lost.

However, that being said … there is so much to this book that to not read it would be a shame. The sheer beauty and poetry of Milton’s language is something to experience at least once. His verse, the careful choice of each word, of each punctuation mark (Milton was blind when Paradise Lost was written and he dictated it to a scribe) makes the words flow and move and come alive on the tongue and in the brain. The fact that this is not required reading at a high school level is both a blessing and a curse; a blessing in that most high schooler’s brains would POP! at trying to wrap around Milton (if they were anything like I was) and a curse, because they are missing out on so much cool stuff.

I don’t mean to gush like a fan boy, but it is true: Paradise Lost has something for everyone: there is violence, war, pageantry, romance, love, sex, some really spectacular and unforgettable imagery … and one of the most compelling characters in all of Western Literature: SATAN.

Milton’s Satan is so fascinating, so compelling, so complex, and yet—because of who Milton was (a Puritan)—is the villain and therefore one-dimensional at the same time. It is no wonder that so many people have written about Milton’s Satan, he is too juicy not too. I, myself, wrote my final paper for the class on the Shakespearean influence on Milton’s Satan, so not even I was immune to his charms, so to speak.

Oh! There is just so much to go in to. The misogyny of Milton. Milton’s perception of God. Adam and Eve. The culpability of Adam, Eve, Satan and God in the Fall. Eve’s narcissism. God’s narcissism. The role of Christ in Paradise Lost. The religious implications of what Milton has created in Paradise Lost. The role of Love in God’s plan. The role of Sin and Death in God’s plan. The role of Chaos in God’s plan. So so so so so so very much we could discuss and keep discussing and debating, well into the midnight hours.

Then there are the works that were inspired or influenced by Paradise Lost: Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, most obviously, the 1997 Keanu Reeves/Al Pacino film The Devil’s Advocate, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and it’s spin-off Lucifer, The Lord of the Rings (Sauron, in particular), C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the list goes on…

Look. I’ll be honest with you. Paradise Lost is not an easy thing to read. It is a Biblical poem based on epic poetry which attempts to explain to man God’s reasons for the Creation and Fall. It was written in the 1670s at a time when standardized punctuation and spelling were not yet de rigueur. Milton relies heavily on mythological and epic conventions that are, frankly, virtually no longer in use, and therefore as good as a foreign tongue to modern readers who do not have a classical education background. It is misogynistic; there are two women in Paradise Lost and neither one of them come off too well (though Eve may have some redeeming qualities). It is pedantic. It is highly religious, and Milton fair hits you over the head with his point.

But …

but …

Ask me if it is worth reading…

yes … a thousand times … yes