John Milton's epic 17th-century poetic masterpiece draws upon Bible stories and classical mythology to explore the meaning of existence. Paradise Lost has exercised enormous influence on generations of artists and their works, ranging from the Romantic poets William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley to Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

'An endless moral maze, introducing literature's first Romantic, Satan' John CareyIn 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, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitter and briefly in danger of execution - Pa...

“All is not lost, the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.”A fallen angel, banished to the depths of Hell. A pair of innocents, tempted to sin. Vain, prideful, and blinded by ambition, Satan sets out to show that God’s newest creation is weak and disobedient. Stunned by the beauty of the Garden of Eden, he becomes even more determined to corrupt mankind and prove himself the victor in the eternal struggle between darknes...

Beginning with the story of Satan after he was expelled from Heaven along with his followers, Paradise Lost details Satan’s journey to the Garden of Eden and his intent to destroy God’s new creation. The poem also depicts the perspectives of both Adam and Eve, examining their personalities and motivations before and after Eve’s fateful temptation.After publishing Paradise Lost, author John Milton was immediately recognized and lauded as one of the greatest English...

First published in 1667, "Paradise Lost" is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton."Paradise Lost" is about Adam and Eve and how they came to be created and how they came to lose their place in the Garden of Eden, also called Paradise. It's the same story found in the first pages of Genesis, expanded by Milton into a very long, detailed, narrative poem. It also includes the story of the origin of Satan. Originally, he was called Lucifer, an angel i...

HarperCollins is proud to present our range of timeless literary classics.‘Greedily she engorged without restraint,And knew not eating death;’Milton’s Paradise Lost is a poem of epic proportions that tells of Satan’s attempts to mislead Eve into disobeying God in the Garden of Eden, by eating from the tree of knowledge. His interpretation of the biblical story of Genesis is vivid and intense in its language, justifying the actions of God to men. In his sequel poem, P...

The epic poem Paradise Lost tells the story of the fall of man. The poem details Satan’s journey to the Garden of Eden and his intent to destroy God’s new creation, and examines the personalities and motivations of Adam and Eve, before and after the fateful temptation. Paradise Regained was published four years after Paradise Lost, and alternatively focuses on the temptation of Christ and the recapturing on all that man had lost in Paradise Lost....

"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." In Paradise Lost, John Milton transforms the story of Adam and Eve, their temptation, and their fall from grace into one of the greatest epics ever written — a sweeping tale of freedom, rebellion, and redemption. Through dazzling verse and profound imagination, Milton presents Satan's bold revolt against God, the creation of the world, and humanity's first disobedience — exploring questions of morality, divine justice, and the meaning of f...

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books; a second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. The poem concerns the Judeo-Christian 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. Milton's...

In 1796, William Hayley named John Milton the greatest English author, high praise considering Milton (1608-1674) lived during the Age of Shakespeare. Regardless of whether Milton is truly the greatest English author, few question his legacy as one of the greatest writers of the English language and one of the most important philosophers of modern Europe. Living during a tumultuous period that saw the English Civil War and the rise of Oliver Cromwell, Milton witnessed firsthand the political ...

Edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, and Stephen M. FallonJohn Milton’s Paradise Lost, an epic poem on the clash between God and his fallen angel, Satan, is a profound meditation on fate, free will, and divinity, and one of the most beautiful works in world literature. Extracted from the Modern Library’s highly acclaimed The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton, this edition reflects up-to-date scholarship and includes a substan...

"The greatest epic poem in the English language . . . A work of unparalleled imaginative genius that shapes English literature even now." —Benjamin Ramm, BBC.comWritten in blank verse by the seventeenth-century English poet John Milton, this "epic of over 10,000 lines is a dramatic, imaginative version of Satan's rebellion against God and of Adam and Eve's eviction from Eden. Set at the beginnings of human history, it shifts us across an expansive...