Paradise Lost
John Milton · 1608–1674 · England
Why it matters
Satan rebels, falls, and talks his way into Eden; Adam and Eve lose paradise knowingly. Genesis retold as cosmic epic by a blind revolutionary, with a devil so magnificent that readers have argued for centuries about whose side the poem is on.
At a glance
epic
Difficulty 8/10slow pace300 pagesLatinate syntax suspended across dozens of lines, thick with classical and biblical allusion.
Deep dive
The poem's most notorious critical problem isn't in its plot but in its craftsmanship: why does the villain get the poetry.
