Paradise Lost by John Milton

John Milton's epic poem 'Paradise Lost'

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608-1674). It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, changed into twelve books. It is considered by critics to be Milton's "major work"

The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden;

This edition is based on the twelve books of the 1860 Collier edition with 50 plates by Gustave Doré and an introduction to Paradise Lost by Robert Vaughan, D.D. and includes an abridged biography of Gustave Doré,

Robert Vaughan, D.D"-

"The general impression concerning Shakespeare is that he was a man little influenced by the love of fame; and little interested in the struggle relating to civil and religious liberty which was becoming daily stronger in his time and was soon to bring on a civil war. In these respects Milton was another man. His reverence for humanity in its higher forms, made him desire to have a place in its memory, and in its great heart in the time to come. In this sense he was ambitious, and made no secret of being so; while in regard to freedom generally, such was his estimate of its tendency to develop and ennoble manhood, that to secure its influence to his country, he may be said to have placed his master passion his love of poetry in abeyance for half a lifetime, and during that interval, not only to have brought himself to blindness in its cause, but to have exposed himself to the utmost hazard.

His convictions, as a Christian and a patriot, were enlightened, serious, and deeply seated. Men of his order must live to great moral and religions ends. Shakespeare, in his vocation, was always a man of comparative purity, more so in his later years; but he could make vice furnish amusement as Milton never could. The forbidden, whether in the shape of levity or malignity, is always presented by our epic poet in its true colours, and never fails of its reward. It is something to be able to say of the greatest of our bards, that he was one of the best of men. The fruits of his genius, accordingly, may well find their homo in the purest households.

What the genius of Milton was the intelligence of his country has at length fairly recognised. In his day the Bible was regarded as a treasure which had been lost and found. Not more than three generations had passed since it had been rescued from the most guarded secrecy, and made to be a home possession with our people. Great was the value attached to it: simple, earnest, and unshaken was the faith reposed in it. "