Book description
'An endless moral maze, introducing literature's first Romantic, Satan' John Carey
In his epic poem Paradise Lost Milton conjured up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story,…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Paradise Lost as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Until I readthis book, I thought Satan was a bad guy. But the Satan of this book is surprisingly sympathetic. I love re-reading familiar stories from the point of view of a character who is not what I expect. Satan makes his rebellion of angels sound like a popular uprising against an autocratic ruler, one who was not elected but “upheld by old repute,/Consent or custom.” It’s like Satan is the George Washington of Heaven, rising up against God’s King George. And I applaud his acceptance of his current situation in Hell: “Here at least/We shall be free.” No…
From Ursula's list on The best books whose main characters I’d most like to spend a night at the bar with.
If you are fed up with the mundane, the triviality of everyday life, and if you want to experience the sublime – writing that is sublime, that lifts you up to see imaginary and heroic worlds where the invisible forces that underpin reality battle for supremacy, then this is the poem for you. True, its language can seem difficult, but so can Shakespeare’s; instead of thinking that’s a problem, embrace it – let the language work its magic and soar to the stars and back! I have loved this poem ever since I read it when I was twenty, and…
From James' list on The best books with epic poems to stir the warrior and the wit in you.
If you love Paradise Lost...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
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