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ReadingRate edition

Paradise Lost

John Milton, 1667

329 pages · 82,098 words · about 9 hours · regard 95 of 100

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Paradise Lost narrates the biblical Fall of Man through twelve books of blank verse epic poetry. Opening in Hell after the failed rebellion, Satan rallies his fallen angels and vows revenge against God by corrupting His newest creation, humanity. The poem shifts to Heaven, where God foresees Satan's plot and the Fall but asserts human free will. Milton then depicts Eden, where Adam and Eve live in innocent perfection until Satan, disguised as a serpent, tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. She persuades Adam to join her transgression. God expels them from Paradise but promises future redemption through Christ. Milton renders this cosmic drama through massively extended syntax, learned theological argument, and baroque imagery that transforms biblical narrative into philosophical meditation on divine justice, human freedom, and the origins of evil.

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