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Title: Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (The Signet Classic Poetry Series) by John Milton, Christopher B. Ricks, Susanne Woods ISBN: 0-451-52792-5 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 07 November, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.88 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Way more accessible than I would ever have guessed
Comment: A few days ago I finished Paradise Lost for a book club I'm in. It took me the whole first chapter to get adjusted, but then the book really swept me away. The language is beautiful and the concepts very deep and thoughtful. I can't always agree with Milton's thoedicy, but it definitely provides rich and spicy food for thought. The book requires a lot from the reader, but it's well worth every moment. We also read all 3 books of Dante's Divine Comedy for the book club. I was frequently lost, especially while reading Purgatorio and Paradisio, but Milton is different. You can understand - and enjoy - most of what he says even without the footnotes (though you'll miss 90% of the allusions without them). The poetry is sublime. Like a really great novel, this work hangs over you for days after you finish it, tugging at your heart.
Rating: 5
Summary: Classic work
Comment: Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till on greater Man
Restore us and regain the blissful seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse...
Not a lot people know that 'Paradise Lost' has as a much lesser known companion piece 'Paradise Regained'; of course, it was true during Milton's time as it is today that the more harrowing and juicy the story, the better it will likely be remembered and received.
This is not to cast any aspersion on this great poem, however. It has been called, with some justification, the greatest English epic poem. The line above, the first lines of the first book of the poem, is typical of the style throughout the epic, in vocabulary and syntax, in allusiveness. The word order tends toward the Latinate, with the object coming first and the verb coming after.
Milton follows many classical examples by personifying characters such as Death, Chaos, Mammon, and Sin. These characters interact with the more traditional Christian characters of Adam, Eve, Satan, various angels, and God. He takes as his basis the basic biblical text of the creation and fall of humanity (thus, 'Paradise Lost'), which has taken such hold in the English-speaking world that many images have attained in the popular mind an almost biblical truth to them (in much the same way that popular images of Hell owe much to Dante's Inferno). The text of Genesis was very much in vogue in the mid-1600s (much as it is today) and Paradise Lost attained an almost instant acclaim.
John Milton was an English cleric, a protestant who nonetheless had a great affinity for catholic Italy, and this duality of interests shows in much of his creative writing as well as his religious tracts. Milton was nicknamed 'the divorcer' in his early career for writing a pamphlet that supported various civil liberties, including the right to obtain a civil divorce on the grounds of incompatibility, a very unpopular view for the day. Milton held a diplomatic post under the Commonwealth, and wrote defenses of the governments action, including the right of people to depose and dispose of a bad king.
Paradise Lost has a certain oral-epic quality to it, and for good reason. Milton lost his eyesight in 1652, and thus had to dictate the poem to several different assistants. Though influenced heavily by the likes of Virgil, Homer, and Dante, he differentiated himself in style and substance by concentrating on more humanist elements.
Say first -- for Heaven hides nothing from thy view,
Nor the deep tract of Hell -- say first what cause
Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state,
Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off
From their Creator and transgress his will,
For one restraint, lords of the world besides?
Milton drops us from the beginning into the midst of the action, for the story is well known already, and proceeds during the course of the books (Milton's original had 10, but the traditional epic had 12 books, so some editions broke books VII and X into two books each) to both push the action forward and to give developing background -- how Satan came to be in Hell, after the war in heaven a description that includes perhaps the currently-most-famous line:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in hell:
Better to reign in hell, that serve in heav'n.
(Impress your friends by knowing that this comes from Book I, lines 261-263 of Paradise Lost, rather than a Star Trek episode!)
The imagery of warfare and ambition in the angels, God's wisdom and power and wrath, the very human characterisations of Adam and Eve, and the development beyond Eden make a very compelling story, done with such grace of language that makes this a true classic for the ages. The magnificence of creation, the darkness and empty despair of hell, the manipulativeness of evil and the corruptible innocence of humanity all come through as classic themes. The final books of the epic recount a history of humanity, now sinful, as Paradise has been lost, a history in tune with typical Renaissance renderings, which also, in Milton's religious convictions, will lead to the eventual destruction of this world and a new creation.
A great work that takes some effort to comprehend, but yields great rewards for those who stay the course.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful view of Heaven and Hell
Comment: I have read alot of classic poetry, and it is great to read one in its native language,which is very beautiful. After reading this I can see, and you will be able to see why this is one of the most well known pieces of literature around. This along with The Divine Comedy (which I recommend) are responsible for many peoples present views of Heaven and Hell.
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Title: The Divine Comedy: The Inferno/the Purgatorio/the Paradiso by Dante Alighieri, John Ciardi, Dante Alighieri ISBN: 0451208633 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Divine Comedy : Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (in one volume) by Dante ISBN: 0679433139 Publisher: Everyman's Library Pub. Date: 28 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: The Dore Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy by Gustave Dore ISBN: 048623231X Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1976 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Dore's Illustrations for "Paradise Lost" by Gustave Dore ISBN: 0486277194 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 22 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill ISBN: 0140424385 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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