Paradise lost (Updated ed.)

InParadise LostMilton produced poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time, populated by a memorable gallery of grotesques. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked, innocent Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and in danger of execution -Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men', or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.

John Leonard's revised edition ofParadise Lostcontains full notes, which elucidates Milton's biblical, classical and historical allusions and discuss his vivid, highly original use of language and blank verse.

John Milton (1608-1674) spent his early years in scholarly pursuit. In 1649 he took up the cause for the new Commonwealth, defending the English revolution both in English and Latin - and sacrificing his eyesight in the process. He risked his life by publishingThe Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealthon the eve of the Restoration (1660). His great poems were published after this political defeat.

If you enjoyedParadise Lost, you might like Dante'sInferno, also available in Penguin Classics.

'An endless moral maze, introducing literature's first Romantic, Satan'
  John Carey

'Paradise Lostis, to my mind, the greatest poem in English'
  Philip Pullman, author ofHis Dark Materialstrilogy