Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics) by John Milton, John Leonard ISBN: 0-14-042439-3 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: More verse and rhyme than you can shake a stick at
Comment: Even if you can't appreciate Classical epics and copious amounts of poetic language, this book is still written good enough for one to appreciate. Milton not only instills new life into this ancient story, but makes it just as compelling and intriguing as any modern story. The epic scope the story encompasses, including both the domains of Heaven and Hell, is enough to humble any reader. Also the unique look at the Powers' characters, especially the in depth look at the character of Satan himself, impresses the reader with a sense of something great. All in all, an excellent read if you have the patience to get through a few of the slower parts.
Rating: 5
Summary: I enjoyed it
Comment: In response to 'A Magnificent Failure': Yes, Milton was arrogant, and his language certainly does get high-flown...but it is often very beautiful, to my taste anyway. I especially loved the descriptions of Milton's world--Hell, Eden, and Heaven--in the first few books. After that the poetry isn't quite so sublimely beautiful, but it remains quite pleasurable, and Milton's play with ideas kept me interested anyway. It is true that Eve isn't a well-drawn woman (nor is Adam really a well-drawn man in terms of psychological realism) and the male fantasy-fulfilment that contributed to her character is distracting. Nevertheless, by the end of the book I wasn't as disturbed by the character of Eve as I thought I might be. By my own 21st century standard Milton's views on women are deplorable, but his attitude seems to me more ambivalent than uniformly misogynist. You can't expect Milton to be completely independent of his culture, and 17th century England was itself ambivalent about women. (Many would say that things had gotten worse for women since the late Middle Ages...but I digress.) Eve is one of the three dominant personalities in the book (well, four if you include Milton's!)and as a woman her role in Milton's universe is quite important, if limiting to her by modern western standards.
Overall, as long as the reader keeps in mind that he or she need not agree with Milton's ideas, reading Paradise Lost can be a pleasurable and thought-provoking experience.
Rating: 2
Summary: A magnificent failure.
Comment: "Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again," Samuel Johnson wrote of Milton's massive work, and added that no one ever wished it to be any longer than it is. I for one wish it were so much shorter that it hadn't been written at all.
Milton was a man of extreme arrogance. He thought one way was right, and that was his way, in religion, in politics, and in poetry. Disregarding that English is not an inflected language, that its sounds are more various and therefore less melodious than those of Latin, Greek or even Italian, he blasted rhymed poetry with his blunderbuss of a pen and launched forth in an endless barrage of blank verse.
And with which subject did he choose to invade our ears and sense? Only the one which (according to believers of the Biblical tradition) was handed down to Moses from God himself. I'll just say: the original story in Genesis is *much* better. Milton puts words in God's mouth. He creates a cartoonish scene of Satan's fall from heaven. And Adam is a philosopher with long and flowing locks (very pretty, like those which Milton himself proudly wore). Eve is not a well-drawn woman but the narrow fantasy of his cramped mind.
A good plot with sympathetic characters in a vivid setting is not the point of Milton's attack. This is Milton creating a universe-- a God, an earth, a human race-- with which he can be comfortable. Any lack of freshness in the story is obscured in the clanging bells of his language, in his love of exotic proper nouns: "Sinai," "Sion," "Siloa" he rattles off in the opening lines. "Horrible dungeon" is too commonplace, but invert it and "Dungeon horrible" is downright impressive.
Even Reverend Lovejoy of Springfield couldn't keep up with Milton's fire and brimstone: "fiery Deluge" and "ever-burning Sulphur" are part of the place "Eternal Justice" has prepared for the "rebellious." Is it now? Well, who rebelled against the King of England, but Milton with his friend Cromwell? Oh, but that's different, because it was the *right* way, Milton's way, such as his own form of the English language, one in which word order and syntax matter no more.
No-- there is not a compelling moral to be gained from this grave work. It is Milton's tribute to his own ego, his vast learning in Vergil and Homer, in Hebrew, and his dogmatic views in politics and religion.
The title is the best part. For centuries women and men who have never read the work have used the words "paradise lost" in conversation. But dive into the pages and prepare to be disappointed by a string of place-names-- "Rabba" and "Argob" and "Basan" and "Arnon"-- and a cherub telling Adam everything that will happen on earth (for two whole books!), a necessary device because after all, the story in Genesis is so very brief!
Other than the title, _Paradise Lost_ is a failure, but because it is on such a grand scale, because it is so ambitious, it is a magnificent one at that. Milton's learning was very deep, and his mind clever, so I'll grant him two stars for those qualities. Otherwise, avoid this like Eve should have avoided that nasty piece of fruit.
 |
Title: Utopia (Penguin Classics) by Thomas More, Paul Turner ISBN: 0140449108 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
 |
Title: The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill ISBN: 0140424385 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
 |
Title: The Divine Comedy: The Inferno/the Purgatorio/the Paradiso by Dante Alighieri, John Ciardi, Dante Alighieri ISBN: 0451208633 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, John Ciardi, Dante Alighieri, Archibald T. MacAllister ISBN: 0451527984 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 12 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
 |
Title: Divine Comedy : Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (in one volume) by Dante ISBN: 0679433139 Publisher: Everyman's Library Pub. Date: 28 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
