Post-Reformation · 1667

Paradise Lost

John Milton (1608-1674)

Milton's twelve-book blank verse epic retells the Fall of Man from Satan's rebellion in heaven through Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden, presenting the full arc of sin's entry into the world. No work in English has shaped the imagination of Christian readers more deeply: it gave generations a vivid mental picture of Satan, of Eden, and of the loss that Christ came to restore. Composed by dictation after Milton had gone blind, it was published in 1667 in the aftermath of the English Civil War and the collapse of the Puritan Commonwealth.

7 hrs total · 12 chapters