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John Milton's Paradise Lost In Plain English
The PLAIN ENGLISH version you’ve been waiting for! Now a new, improved Kindle-friendly edition! Nothing else like it! Between-the-lines format! More choices! Easy navigation! Still hated by your teacher!
1407 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 30, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 10, 2022
Having a plain English translation alongside the original text is helpful, given that Milton wrote in such a way that is no longer contemporary with our times. What I found frustrating was in addition to the thees and thous which aren't so bad, is he would spell common words differently than we spell them today.
As far as the story goes, it's a classic. Essentially, a romanticized version of Satan's fall from heaven, his shape-shifting lies to Adam & Eve, with additions of battle scenes between the fallen angels and the angels who stayed loyal to God. One thing that struck me as interesting is Milton's description of Jesus and Satan make it seem as if Satan was envious of man and even more envious of the God-man, Jesus Christ.
I can see why the religious people at the time might have been offended by Milton's work, however, Milton himself identified as a Christian, so I do not think his intention was to be blasphemous, but to create a narrative about the fall, Milton tries to paint Satan as a complex character, not like a Disney villain, who is just pure evil for evils sake. I like what Milton did, because following the Biblical story, Satan was an angel and he did not rebel the second he was created, so it must stand to reason that at one point he was good and something made him want to rebel and go against God.
As far as the story goes, it's a classic. Essentially, a romanticized version of Satan's fall from heaven, his shape-shifting lies to Adam & Eve, with additions of battle scenes between the fallen angels and the angels who stayed loyal to God. One thing that struck me as interesting is Milton's description of Jesus and Satan make it seem as if Satan was envious of man and even more envious of the God-man, Jesus Christ.
I can see why the religious people at the time might have been offended by Milton's work, however, Milton himself identified as a Christian, so I do not think his intention was to be blasphemous, but to create a narrative about the fall, Milton tries to paint Satan as a complex character, not like a Disney villain, who is just pure evil for evils sake. I like what Milton did, because following the Biblical story, Satan was an angel and he did not rebel the second he was created, so it must stand to reason that at one point he was good and something made him want to rebel and go against God.
September 20, 2016
This was an extremely hefty book considering it was the first epic poem I've tackled in my own time, but it was overall pretty enjoyable when I worked out what he was saying!
June 29, 2018
What a great story
This was such a good story, it will inspire to story that I will tell. My heart is moved beyond words...
This was such a good story, it will inspire to story that I will tell. My heart is moved beyond words...
January 22, 2022
Oh wow that was a long ass read! It wasn't even that it was very big just that reading Middle English takes a certain kind of comprehensive skill I lack, but improved upon as I read this. For people saying that having plain English lines are "cheating" I'd like to say how the hell are people going to learn? This actually taught me Middle English comprehensive skills which I'm amazed at, I found myself understanding Milton's lines the more and more I read on whereas on my first attempt at this book which was just Milton's lines on their own I had given up because I couldn't wrap my head around what was going on.
Besides the fact that in Middle English they use words we no longer use and I had to look up what they meant, like "anon" and such, and the fact that they spelt words we have now different back then, and the sentence structure was different, they also didn't seem to have invented the quotation marks needed to distinguish when someone is talking or not, that was a challenge but the plain English version saves you the trouble of trying to figure out whether or not someone is actually talking.
At the time Milton wrote Paradise Lost it was all of the rage to write stories and epics about the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and other mythologies which were no longer worshipped seriously.
But Milton didn't wanna do that, he obviously loved Christianity and the Abrahamic god so much (and you can see this in his work) that he wanted to write an epic based on the bible.
What's so strange about this book is that he invoked God to help him write it, as say a Prophet might. He basically claims that God spoke to or guided him in writing this epic masterpiece to make it accurate, of course though, he does mess up a few things simply based on the scientific knowledge that was available at the time, though he does mention other planets and ponders on whether or not God put other life on them which I thought was cool for someone of his time.
The book is canonically consistent with the bible, doesn't contradict it at all, it came a little close by having Jesus in heaven defeating Satan in my opinion though. In the battle Michael defeats Lucifer, than Jesus came in and curb stomped everyone, than Michael chased them all out for good measure
The bible never mentions this from what I know, it says that Michael and his OP sword fucked Satan up and Michael cast Lucifer out, chasing the serpent from heaven. Imo Milton's revision steals Michael's thunder a bit but he was a devout Christian and you know how they are about Jesus, they desperately wanna choke on the Messiahs **** lmao (sorry but it's true). His revisions never contradict but add, I feel like that particular revision was shit, though I must admit I only hated this so much because Michael is my favourite Arch-Angel/character.
But anyway, what Milton did was very controversial, he took the word of god into his own hands and wrote it. The Church never did and still doesn't officially accept Paradise Lost as canon, though they could I guess but they actually banned it at one point I think because he criticised the Church a bit, or religious institutions in general. I think he compared building temples, churches and shrines to building idols or something which got them butthurt, on top of y'know, claiming to have a direct line to the almighty to write this.
I think to accept Milton's work as cannon would be to undermine the religion a bit, because Milton was just some guy to us, unlike the "real" prophets who don't have a birth certificate, official records, portraits and such, those guys and the guys who wrote the bible died in obscurity and were raised by legend. Milton's work kept provoking the question from me "if he could do it, why not anyone?"
Indeed, why not anyone?
I don't think Milton intended this, as he was a stout believer himself and loved his religion, but his work does, to me at least, provoke thought into the nature of "truth" and who actually owns such a thing. Probably not the guy who wasn't sure if the sun revolved around the Earth or the Earth the sun, for some reason God forgot to tell him that, and also somehow forgot to mention that there were 8-9 planets (depending on whether or not you count Pluto) not seven in our solar system.
It's almost as if the people who write these things are limited to the collective knowledge possessed by humanity at the time and should be judged accordingly, just like the Bible, Torah or Quran. None of that is a dig at Milton's intelligence though, the man was very intelligent for his time.
Besides the fact that in Middle English they use words we no longer use and I had to look up what they meant, like "anon" and such, and the fact that they spelt words we have now different back then, and the sentence structure was different, they also didn't seem to have invented the quotation marks needed to distinguish when someone is talking or not, that was a challenge but the plain English version saves you the trouble of trying to figure out whether or not someone is actually talking.
At the time Milton wrote Paradise Lost it was all of the rage to write stories and epics about the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and other mythologies which were no longer worshipped seriously.
But Milton didn't wanna do that, he obviously loved Christianity and the Abrahamic god so much (and you can see this in his work) that he wanted to write an epic based on the bible.
What's so strange about this book is that he invoked God to help him write it, as say a Prophet might. He basically claims that God spoke to or guided him in writing this epic masterpiece to make it accurate, of course though, he does mess up a few things simply based on the scientific knowledge that was available at the time, though he does mention other planets and ponders on whether or not God put other life on them which I thought was cool for someone of his time.
The book is canonically consistent with the bible, doesn't contradict it at all, it came a little close by having Jesus in heaven defeating Satan in my opinion though. In the battle Michael defeats Lucifer, than Jesus came in and curb stomped everyone, than Michael chased them all out for good measure
The bible never mentions this from what I know, it says that Michael and his OP sword fucked Satan up and Michael cast Lucifer out, chasing the serpent from heaven. Imo Milton's revision steals Michael's thunder a bit but he was a devout Christian and you know how they are about Jesus, they desperately wanna choke on the Messiahs **** lmao (sorry but it's true). His revisions never contradict but add, I feel like that particular revision was shit, though I must admit I only hated this so much because Michael is my favourite Arch-Angel/character.
But anyway, what Milton did was very controversial, he took the word of god into his own hands and wrote it. The Church never did and still doesn't officially accept Paradise Lost as canon, though they could I guess but they actually banned it at one point I think because he criticised the Church a bit, or religious institutions in general. I think he compared building temples, churches and shrines to building idols or something which got them butthurt, on top of y'know, claiming to have a direct line to the almighty to write this.
I think to accept Milton's work as cannon would be to undermine the religion a bit, because Milton was just some guy to us, unlike the "real" prophets who don't have a birth certificate, official records, portraits and such, those guys and the guys who wrote the bible died in obscurity and were raised by legend. Milton's work kept provoking the question from me "if he could do it, why not anyone?"
Indeed, why not anyone?
I don't think Milton intended this, as he was a stout believer himself and loved his religion, but his work does, to me at least, provoke thought into the nature of "truth" and who actually owns such a thing. Probably not the guy who wasn't sure if the sun revolved around the Earth or the Earth the sun, for some reason God forgot to tell him that, and also somehow forgot to mention that there were 8-9 planets (depending on whether or not you count Pluto) not seven in our solar system.
It's almost as if the people who write these things are limited to the collective knowledge possessed by humanity at the time and should be judged accordingly, just like the Bible, Torah or Quran. None of that is a dig at Milton's intelligence though, the man was very intelligent for his time.
December 31, 2019
At first I felt like I was cheating with this copy. Upon finishing, I know I learned and experienced the depth of Milton’s work that will continue to challenge my examination of who biblical characters really might have been. Real people who lived, hurt and desired to worship the creator. I felt their struggles with self and satan. Though fictionalized I didn’t feel as though the Bible was compromised, but occasionally found disagreement in some dissertations. All in all, I got to the point where I could finally read only the original language and not rely entirely on the modern English. Which in fact was so ‘plain’, it was comical. I’m so thankful for this version. It helped me to read the lovely words of Milton and thoroughly enjoy Paradise List.
June 4, 2020
This is a classic and I always wanted to read it. It was good to read the original poem and then have it interpreted in English. The story wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was still good. Adam was clearly weak for Eve and that was made known to him. I loved the visuals regarding the war in Heaven and how "Sin" was born. The story ends with the Angel Michael telling Adam the future up until the birth of Christ. It was like getting an overview of the Old Testament until the New Testament. Adam is discouraged by what he has done. But ultimately he is filled with hope that mankind will be reconciled to God.
August 1, 2021
This is a great book if you want to learn the main theme of Paradise Lost, or if you want to know what the verses in the poem mean.
Note that all the original poetry and beauty is completely lost in the Plain english text, the title is absolutely true: "Plain English" , its as plain as it can be, any teenager can read this.
I always wanted to read this book, I am not very interested on the poem itself, but rather on the story line, so this book was great for me!
Note that all the original poetry and beauty is completely lost in the Plain english text, the title is absolutely true: "Plain English" , its as plain as it can be, any teenager can read this.
I always wanted to read this book, I am not very interested on the poem itself, but rather on the story line, so this book was great for me!
December 29, 2018
The modern English is a bit coarse, but students love this fantastic tale of Milton's thoughts on what actually happened from the rebellion in Heaven to the loss of Paradise. Epic fodder for thought, powerful fuse to set off great discussions...
June 12, 2018
every teacher's worst nightmare lol it saved me and I got an A in my class. super happy i found this.
November 4, 2018
Amazing translation
Currently in AP Literature and this book saved my life throughout my class’s discussion. I would definitely recommend to friends.
Currently in AP Literature and this book saved my life throughout my class’s discussion. I would definitely recommend to friends.
December 7, 2018
Amazing
This book is amazing I would recommend to anyone who likes to read a sort of thing like this book
This book is amazing I would recommend to anyone who likes to read a sort of thing like this book
January 2, 2019
I love this version. It has the original text alongside the plain English. It was really helpful when reading and discussing it with my son. It's similar to No Fear Shakespeare.
March 13, 2021
Not sure how the book is laid out, but the Kindle version was very handy. It allows you to choose between original English, modern English, or both.
Read
December 10, 2021Read for class
January 16, 2024
Wonderful
Loved every minute of reading this incredible book! Everyone would be better for reading this. My next read will be paradise regained.
Loved every minute of reading this incredible book! Everyone would be better for reading this. My next read will be paradise regained.
June 16, 2024
Thank heavens for this. Went from struggling with the text to understanding it fluently. Also, quietly, very funny in places.
August 10, 2024
It was fine. I heard it described by Classical Stuff You Should Know podcast as “Bible Fan Fiction” and that’s the best I can offer.
October 13, 2025
After reading this two times in the original, there were still tons of details I missed from this epic poem. The plain English translation helped immensely.
December 7, 2014
Hooked on classics? Nothing like the vast offerings of Milton's Paradise Lost for the simple reason--evil presented with unparalleled mastery! I find that I revisit this book and am still amazed at the levels of understanding Milton was able to reveal in his work. Here was a man obsessed by a "Muse" that he pleaded to (which was not that unique for his time period but still...the "Muse" delivered, lol) towards guiding him to make plain the fall of man. Hell has never been better described. The fall from the heavenly setting to a world of unimagined chaos begins the journey for the reader that is not "the road less travelled" but more the "was it worth it?" Believe it or not, Milton's version makes the efforts of evil to make sense of their new world worth it.
I continue to look forward to mining the beauty that is present in this classic. For those that might come across this review, add to your discovery of this tome with a sonnet by George Meredith, Lucifer in Starlight.
12/7/14: another entry--I never tire of this novel. Milton's birthday is December 9th. I've read somewhere that the best way to read PL is in one setting. For me, I like rediscovering the gems that are embedded. I just finished focusing on PL8. 398-474. The concept of companionship, the exercise of free will and the wonderment of the creation of Eve is so dynamically presented though dialogue that it renders me ALMOST speechless. Milton had to be under the divine influence to craft such powerful verse.
I continue to look forward to mining the beauty that is present in this classic. For those that might come across this review, add to your discovery of this tome with a sonnet by George Meredith, Lucifer in Starlight.
12/7/14: another entry--I never tire of this novel. Milton's birthday is December 9th. I've read somewhere that the best way to read PL is in one setting. For me, I like rediscovering the gems that are embedded. I just finished focusing on PL8. 398-474. The concept of companionship, the exercise of free will and the wonderment of the creation of Eve is so dynamically presented though dialogue that it renders me ALMOST speechless. Milton had to be under the divine influence to craft such powerful verse.
February 8, 2017
Epic poetry1
One story to hold onto, and read again, in English (almost too simple) or in the style it was written in. Definitely gives some refreshing (and sometimes amusing) perspectives on the fall of lucifer, the creation story and the fall of man.
One story to hold onto, and read again, in English (almost too simple) or in the style it was written in. Definitely gives some refreshing (and sometimes amusing) perspectives on the fall of lucifer, the creation story and the fall of man.
October 15, 2014
Really enjoyed the story. The "Plain english" section was a great help. the structure great and user friendly as well Although I believe the plain english section could have served its purpose while using more language that set the atmosphere and tone.
Bottom line: Good. especially for a cheap/free book. get it.
Bottom line: Good. especially for a cheap/free book. get it.
December 29, 2015
Dahyana's Thoughts
It's the kind of book you want to begin again as soon as your finished. Milton's Paradise Lost, is full of sadness and yet so much hope for us all. Read it.
It's the kind of book you want to begin again as soon as your finished. Milton's Paradise Lost, is full of sadness and yet so much hope for us all. Read it.
July 3, 2018
The book does exactly as it promises. A wonderful, accessible ‘translation’ of Milton’s classic.
February 8, 2020
new things with regard to angels and the heavens, re-think the story on a spiritual level etc etc
April 26, 2017
Classic
A must read always. The English translation helped but the original text is more poetic. Good creation myth and moral guide.
A must read always. The English translation helped but the original text is more poetic. Good creation myth and moral guide.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews