Book description
In Paradise Lost Milton produced poem of epic scale, conjuring up a
vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and 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,
bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and briefly in danger of
execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has
led to intensedebate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of
God to men', or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.
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 lifeby publishing The Ready and
Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth on the eve of the
Restoration (1660). His great poems were published after this
political defeat.
John Leonard is a Professor of English at the University of Western Ontario.
