Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost

by Ed Simon

A poet who crafted the greatest character in literary history with his engaging anti-hero of Satan, John Milton connected personal experience with the breadth of cosmic epic. His  Paradise Lost is a touchstone of English literature. In the latest entry in Ig's celebrated Bookmarked series, author Ed Simon considers Paradise Lost within the scope of his own alcoholism and recovery, the collapse of higher education, the imbecility of the canon wars, the piquant joys of labyrinthine sentences, and the exquisite attractions of Lucifer. Milton is easy to respect and easier to fear, but with the guidance of Simon, Milton becomes easiest of all to love. Paradise Lost may have generated thousands of works of criticism over the centuries, but none of them are like this. 

184 pages, Paperback

Published August 15, 2023

Reviews

[M. Sarki · Rating 3 out of 5]

…The subject of all great literature is either about redemption or loss…Noble, heroic, and good people corrupted or degenerated; sinful and wicked men made whole—either/or—those are the narratives which should concern any genuine art, because the turmoil within an individual mind, the canker and possible curing of the soul, is the only drama commensurate with the broken, flawed, limited, damning, painful, horrible, and beautiful experience of being trapped in a human body and human life…

I failed to finish this book, and not because it wasn't good and sometimes interesting. My problem was that I am not at all familiar with Milton and his 1667 epic Paradise Lost. But I wanted to read this book because I assumed the personal story behind why Ed Simon wrote it would carry the day for me. But it was too hard to connect the dots. I was wrong to have even tried.

…There is much that I’m ashamed of, a seeming universe of it, yet I’ve always been grateful to be an alcoholic. In recovery the rock bottom is our felix culpa, the portal through which the active addict loses the illusions which so often confuse falling for flying…

[Dave Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book, itself a review of another book, a biography of an author and a personal story in the context of said book or maybe the other way around. The thesis, the prose itself, the stories out of time from each other, it works perfectly.

[Karen Carlson]

h't millions https://themillions.com/2023/08/why-r...
maybe; I might prefer a more academic approach, but this sounds passionate.