Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost - John Milton - 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 purpose, stated in Book I, is 'justify the ways of God to men' and elucidate the conflict between God's eternal foresight and free will.

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse.Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, Greek, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644)written in condemnation of pre-publication censorshipis among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press.William Hayley's 1796 biography called him the 'greatest English author,' and he remains generally regarded 'as one of the preeminent writers in the English language,' though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death (often on account of his republicanism). Samuel Johnson praised Paradise Lost as 'a poem which...with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind,' though he (a Tory and recipient of royal patronage) described Milton's politics as those of an 'acrimonious and surly republican'.Because of his republicanism, Milton has been the subject of centuries of British partisanship.