Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)

Amazon has the bad habit of lumping reviews of multiple editions of a book without regard as to author/editor or publisher, to the detriment of the buyer's choosing an edition, so I write to make a few comments on the 984,562 editions of "Paradise Lost" listed for purchase. I have used the titles as listed by Amazon to help find the editions I refer to, and, with the exception of the books by Kastan, Lanzara, and BookCaps, the ones I discuss below are ones I own and am familiar with. The version with an introduction and comments by Pullman has text that is large and readable, line numbers and some nice illustrations, taken from the first illustrated edition, published in 1688. It is a nice copy for those who want just the text of the poem. The text is based on Stephen Orgel's 2008 Paradise Lost (Oxford World's Classics) which has been modernized presumably with respect to capitalization, spelling and punctuation. The comments by Pullman are worthwhile, but, while he may be a very good writer, he is not a scholar of Milton. Unlike Orgel, there are no annotations or notes to explain Milton's often arcane language and allusions. For readers seeking annotated versions, I suggest the following. The ultimate edition of Milton is Alastair Fowler's Milton: Paradise Lost : it has been called the Bible of Milton scholars; one review I saw called it suitable for graduate students majoring in Milton. It is one of the few available based on the first edition of "Paradise Lost", published in 1667, but Fowler states that it also includes the additions made in the second edition of 1674 --- the version that most of today's editors use. Know that Fowler has produced a very, very scholarly version with many, many notes, sometimes to the point that they leave only two or three lines of the poem on the page, so I strongly urge using the "Look Inside" feature before deciding to buy it. I recommend Fowler's 1998 Milton: Paradise Lost (2nd Edition) edition in used paperback ---- reissued in 2006 with a new cover and much higher price. The blurb from the publisher on the Pullman webpage misleads the reader by mentioning "This is the first fully-annotated, old-spelling edition ..." It ain't (as the small print says). I can't find the actual book this blurb refers to, there are several that might be the one mentioned. One such version, with very favorable recommendations, is Barbara K. Lewalski's 2007 Paradise Lost that reproduces the original language, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and italics of the 1674 text. Its annotations are on the same page. Again, I would again urge potential buyers to "Look Inside." (Incidentally, I was able to find a .pdf copy of it online). Another annotated edition, again with those on the same page, that sticks close to the original 1674 text (but with some minor modernization) is Merritt Y. Hughes' Paradise Lost (Hackett Classics) , first published in 1935, and revised in 1962. It is advertised as one popular with college professors for their classes, whatever that may mean. From what I gather, Fowler has replaced Hughes as the scholarly version to use. The edition by Hughes was taken in 2003 by David Scott Kastan ( Paradise Lost (Hackett Classics) ) and edited more extensively, again with the annotations on the same page. Incidentally, Kastan's comments on how he edited, along with comments on any editor's choices when dealing with Milton, are well worth reading, and can be found under "Textual Introduction" using the "Look Inside" feature. I urge reading them to understand how and why there are so many different editions of Milton. Yet another annotated edition that comes close to the original is by John Leonard's Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics) . The ad for this version states that the text has been modernized to the degree of reducing some capitals and italics, and correcting the spelling and some punctuation. It is annotated, but not to the degree of Fowler --- but the notes are at the back of the book rather than the bottom of the page as seems customary and which I personally find difficult to use because of constantly having to flip between pages. Again, I would urge potential buyers to "Look Inside." There are many other scholarly editions available in addition to the ones I have mentioned here, including one online at the John Milton Reading Room at Dartmouth College. For those who might like a less challenging version of "Paradise Lost", I suggest BookCaps "translation" (Amazon's words, not mine) Paradise Lost In Plain and Simple English or at an even less difficult level, Joseph Lanzara's John Milton's Paradise Lost In Plain English: A Simple, Line By Line Paraphrase Of The Complicated Masterpiece . Should those prove too difficult, there might be somewhere a copy by Classics Illustrated comics, although a search by Google turns up nothing --- perhaps they never published one. Since each edition of "Paradise Lost" has its strengths and weaknesses, how does the buyer go about selecting an edition for purchase? To me, it's rather like buying a car --- ultimately based upon personal preference, but in this case, rather than engine and body style, determined by the way the editor has modified Milton's language and added annotations, and their degree of adherence to his original language --- some editors produce as little modernization as possible to retain Milton's original meter and rhythm for reading aloud, while others try for a more modern sound. I would suggest using the "Look Inside" feature, to see what the editor has done, to help making a decision. Whichever edition you buy ---- and I recommend the one by Lewalski ---- may you find great enjoyment in reading what I consider the greatest epic poem in the English language --- although you might agree more with what Donald Sutherland's character, Jennings, had to say about it in the movie "Animal House": "Now what can we say about Milton's "Paradise Lost"? It's a very long poem. It was written a long time ago, and I'm sure a lot of you have difficulty understanding exactly what Milton was trying to say. ..... Don't write this down, but I find Milton probably as boring as you find Milton. Mrs. Milton found him boring too. He's a little bit long-winded, he doesn't translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible."

( This review is for ISBN: 978-1-3988-4895-5 and only applies to this edition). I just received this book and it is one of the most beautiful books in my collection. It has full cloth covers, is Smyth sewn and is oversized, so the Gustave Dore drawings show very nicely. All three edges have silkscreen printing. I will not discuss the text since if you are buying this you already would be familiar with the Poem. It is priced very reasonably. No Dust Jacket but it does not need one.

New book perfect conditions :)

Not owning an actual Kindle, but reading instead on my PC via the Kindle Cloud Reader (and secondarily on my iPod Touch), the Kindle version of the Penguin edition of Milton's Paradise Lost (edited by John Leonard) offers one very substantial improvement over the print version: an indication that there's an endnote for a given line of poetry given by endnote numbers embedded in the poetic text. Clicking on the number sends you directly to that note. This is important because the endnotes by John Leonard are among the best of any lower-cost modern annotated edition of Paradise Lost (his introduction is also very good). Stripped of such annotations, as in the "naked" texts you can get for free from Amazon or Google, there's little chance the modern reader would be able to fully appreciate Milton's achievement. (Putting the notes at the end is the usual Penguin Classics practice with its printed books and is the principal flaw of its otherwise fine paperback series of Shakespeare plays.) There are also drawbacks with the Kindle edition, however. There is no running header or footer indicating which "Book" of the poem you are in while skimming through -- it's all one congealed mass of text. Even worse, the original line numbers placed every five lines here also receive a line of their own. This upsets the margins in such a way that it looks like the poem is constructed in 5-line stanzas, which it is not and, equally detrimental, also upsets the visual rhythms of the poetry. These two factors make the poem harder to read out loud (Milton's poetry should be heard, even if only in your mind's ear) or to call up a specific passage that might be referred to in a classroom or in an essay in some other book. For example, getting to Line 263 of Book I ("Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.") is FAR quicker in the print edition than the Kindle one where you have to go to the table of contents to cue the first page of Book I and then turn pages one by one to get to Line 263. Navigation of a digital book should not be as cumbersome as this. Let this be a warning to publishers and buyers of electronic editions of Paradise Lost and other epic poems (Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Chaucer etc.), not to mention other major works with multiple layers of standardized labelled and/or numbered subdivisions, like Shakespeare or the Bible.

Paradise Lost is one of those works that lives up to its reputation. Milton is writing about the fall of Satan, the fall of man, and the cosmic stakes of free will, and somehow makes Satan — the villain — one of the most magnetic characters in English literature. His speeches are the parts you can’t put down. Whether or not Milton intended it, you spend half the poem rooting for the wrong side, which is part of what makes the work so endlessly debated. The blank verse takes a little adjustment if you’re not used to it, but once you settle in, the language is extraordinary. The Macmillan intro gives you helpful context without spoiling the experience.

Regardless of edition, Paradise Lost is one of the finest books ever written, and possibly my favorite. While the subject matter is Christian, the book's greatness transcends religious categories, and I would recommend it equally to secular readers. It is uniformly spectacular in describing heaven, earth, and hell, angels and mortals. However the portrayal of Satan is particularly remarkable. At the start, though at his lowest point, he appears an idealistic hero - championing freedom and the power of the human/angelic mind against a more powerful oppressor. However, as it says in the beginning, his "high words [bear] semblance of worth not substance." As his situation improves, he's revealed as a hypocrite enslaved by his own pride, who increasingly disgusts even himself. As others have pointed out, this is a beautiful edition of the book, well bound with big type. The Dore illustrations are a huge plus, and for me it's hard to imagine buying an edition without them. Blake's are the only real competition, and done in a very different style. For the text, there are two issues that may be a challenge for first-time readers. One, as noted by others, there are no annotations. Honestly, vast sections of the book go by with nothing you'd want to look up anyway. A couple parts have tricky allusions (part of Book I comes to mind), but they're few enough to look up elsewhere, and Milton usually spends a couple lines giving you the gist of what he's referring to. The second issue is spellings, which are modernized. While unneeded, this generally makes reading slightly easier without altering pronunciation. For "ed" endings, modern pronunciations (winged) are spelled normally, while the extra-syllable form (wing-ed) is indicated by a grave symbol. When "the" appears before a vowel, this edition doesn't specify whether to elide (as in, th'Aeonian mount). Hence you either have to infer based on the number of syllables (usually 10 per line) or simply ignore the issue. I was concerned at first, but upon reading it's barely an inconvenience at all. All or most of the other elisions remain explicit. Overall, this is a superb edition, and perfect if you want a nice hardback containing the Dore illustrations.

A great read with beautiful language but my review is more about how it came OUT OF THE BOX with a large crease in the upper corner, it is so annoying knowing that it’s there and I wasn’t even the one to do it but maybe I’m nitpicking BUT this is also my first time ordering a Penguin Classics but of course the problem is most likely Amazon. I’ve read some of it before, descriptions are dense and it’s written as a dialogue between satan, his followers and others and sentences tend to go on so fair warning it can be slow just in case that’s not your thing. I’ve seen other reviews complain about the quality some saying the binding is bad and that pages fall out, my edition is mostly fine But it does have small marks and like stains especially on the back I don’t know what that’s about since it’s supposedly new but nothing that ruins the smooth texture of the book… oh wait, except for that BIGASS CREASE ON MY COVER

Amazing classic!

Truly one of the greatest works of literature written in the English language. Classical gold, it helps to have an understanding of the bible to understand all the references.

Very nice book.

Amazing edition, beautifully gold embossed hard cover with the pages coloured on the sides to form illustrations of angels etc. Also the illustrations by Gustave Doré are amazing and add to the overall experience of Milton's epic prose. A must have!

The famous interpretation of Paradise Lost is that Satan is the hero with all the best lines. And there is a lot of validity in that. When he rebels in Heaven, taking with him a third of the angels, stricken by "envie" of the Son, he reveals himself as a thoughtful, interesting, innovative, brave character. But you can interpret Paradise Lost as a comparison of Satan and the Son. And the Son is presented as a kind, modest, thoughtful, innovative, brave character. He is kinder and softer than the humanised Son of the New Testament, and he softens the Father who immediately accepts his pleadings on behalf of mankind. The love that comes from the Son seems similar to me to the love which Popes, archbishops and cardinals refer to when they repeat the idea that "God is love". His love is immediate and merciful - not like the angry love of Jesus in the New Testament or the tough love of the Father. For instance, the Son is described as having a "sense of new job ineffably diffused" within him and of having "Divine compassion" which visibly appeared on him, and showing "Love without end, and without measure Grace". The Father also becomes deeply merciful, stating at one stage that either justice will survive or that man will - meaning that, if he wants man to survive, he must be merciful. Another hero is Adam who also becomes thoughtful and brave as he becomes older and develops. Eve is tricky as she is painted as the traditional, beautiful wife who gets into terrible trouble when she uses her initiative (and eats the apple). The portrait of Eve is shocking, in fact. No wonder women were repressed by men when they read this or the Old Testament. She was blamed for everything and was untrustworthy and, under pressure, slippery. (At one stage she blames Adam for having listened to her entreaties to let her go off alone and, as it worked out, to be tempted by the serpent.) Anyway, this is an astounding tale with wonderful characterisation, put together by someone with great imagination and great rationality. It is hard to read, however. Milton was a great linguist and his Latin style influences the construction of his sentences. Just to quote a little on Satan. After "the Arch-fiend lay/Chain'd on the burning lake", having left Heaven, he has to work out what to do and how to organise Hell as far as he can. He says that "The mind is its own place and in itself/Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n". Later he tries to work out what doing evil means in practice, and so aims to create a system in which "Fate shall yield/ To fickle Chance, and CHAOS judge the strife". That is an interesting definition of Hell, in my view, and one that we do import to earth (in civil wars, extreme poverty and even in normal life). This is ultimately a very optimistic work in many ways. For instance, the Angel Michael tells that fallen Adam that if he can feel love for others he "shalt possess a Paradise within thee" and that this could make him "happier farr" than just being in Paradise. Also, and this is easy to miss in the blandishments of the Testaments New and Old, man was created as a beautiful creature in the image of God. Adam and Eve seem "Lords of all" in Paradise.

Je reste très attaché à Milton, très certainement le plus grand écrivain de son temps, ça c'est sûr. Il est malheureusement le plus oublié par l'Angleterre, qui prompte à encensée ceux qui honore la royauté, délaisse volontier celui qui par son talent a porté la littérature Britanique au sommet. Tragédie de la politique... Heureusement, dans les classes françaises de mon époque, une large place était faite à ce grand écrivain, mort misérablement. Le paradis perdu est une oeuvre magistrale qui devrait être lu par tous. Paradise Lost