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The Essential Paradise Lost
After its publication in 1667, John Milton’s Paradise Lost was celebrated throughout Europe as a supreme achievement of the human spirit.
Now it is little read. To bring readers back to Milton’s masterpiece, John Carey has shortened it to a third of its original length. In this fascinating reinterpretation, Carey reveals new insights about Milton’s sources of inspiration, while exploring divided readings of the work’s key characters.
The Essential Paradise Lost presents the epic’s greatest poetry, with linking passages that preserve its cosmic sweep – from the superhuman defiance of a ruined archangel to a pair of tragic lovers, bewildered to find themselves responsible for the fate of the whole human race.
Now it is little read. To bring readers back to Milton’s masterpiece, John Carey has shortened it to a third of its original length. In this fascinating reinterpretation, Carey reveals new insights about Milton’s sources of inspiration, while exploring divided readings of the work’s key characters.
The Essential Paradise Lost presents the epic’s greatest poetry, with linking passages that preserve its cosmic sweep – from the superhuman defiance of a ruined archangel to a pair of tragic lovers, bewildered to find themselves responsible for the fate of the whole human race.
235 pages, Hardcover
Published August 8, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 21, 2017
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
A thought-provoking, informative break-down of one of the UK's most important poetic works.
Obviously, Paradise Lost is a bit of a classic. As someone who had to study it in the past, I do remember finding parts rather inaccessible though - which is where this wonderful book comes in!
John Carey has created a highly effective abridged version of the original text, which focuses on the key parts of the poem, whilst providing good explanation about the parts that have been excluded. The end result? A version of the book that is more accessible for a modern audience, and perfect as a study version for students.
I also enjoyed his commentary at the start and end - certainly made me think about Milton's intentions whilst writing Paradise Lost. Definitely recommended for students, plus anyone else who has a fondness for the original text (but found it a bit dense in places...)
A thought-provoking, informative break-down of one of the UK's most important poetic works.
Obviously, Paradise Lost is a bit of a classic. As someone who had to study it in the past, I do remember finding parts rather inaccessible though - which is where this wonderful book comes in!
John Carey has created a highly effective abridged version of the original text, which focuses on the key parts of the poem, whilst providing good explanation about the parts that have been excluded. The end result? A version of the book that is more accessible for a modern audience, and perfect as a study version for students.
I also enjoyed his commentary at the start and end - certainly made me think about Milton's intentions whilst writing Paradise Lost. Definitely recommended for students, plus anyone else who has a fondness for the original text (but found it a bit dense in places...)
March 4, 2017
Like Carey, I, too, teach Paradise Lost to undergraduates (though for nowhere near as long as he has!) and yes, it can be a struggle to help them engage with the complications and complexities of Milton's epic narrative poem. Carey's response is to abridge Milton's 12 books down to something the length of Animal Farm.
He keeps parts of all 12 books linked by his own summaries and commentaries. The problem with this is that Milton's great, rolling, digressive sentences can become broken up and fragmented as we switch between the poem and Carey's interventions. For example, in Book 2, we get 42 lines of Milton, Carey's summary which bridges about 100 lines, then another 6 lines of Milton before another bridging passage which covers about 40 lines, then we return to 10 lines of Milton...
It's hard, of course, but Carey's approach (and his introduction) seems to over-simplify Milton's poem. From my own experience, undergraduates don't need to be patronised or have their hands held to this extent, or their ambitions reduced or an indication that their tutors expect them not to get on with Milton (the solution in my department is to make students read 3 books of the poem in their entirety, with the hope that they'll be encouraged to read further on their own).
That said, this is a good 'version' either for A-level students taking their first steps into epic narrative poetry or for the general reader wanting a taster of Milton. I applaud Carey's attempt to get Milton back into general reading circulation (it's a wonderful poem!) but I'm not completely sure that this 'reader's digest' approach is the best way to do it. Well done, Faber, too, for an innovative publishing project.
Thanks to Faber for an ARC via NetGalley
He keeps parts of all 12 books linked by his own summaries and commentaries. The problem with this is that Milton's great, rolling, digressive sentences can become broken up and fragmented as we switch between the poem and Carey's interventions. For example, in Book 2, we get 42 lines of Milton, Carey's summary which bridges about 100 lines, then another 6 lines of Milton before another bridging passage which covers about 40 lines, then we return to 10 lines of Milton...
It's hard, of course, but Carey's approach (and his introduction) seems to over-simplify Milton's poem. From my own experience, undergraduates don't need to be patronised or have their hands held to this extent, or their ambitions reduced or an indication that their tutors expect them not to get on with Milton (the solution in my department is to make students read 3 books of the poem in their entirety, with the hope that they'll be encouraged to read further on their own).
That said, this is a good 'version' either for A-level students taking their first steps into epic narrative poetry or for the general reader wanting a taster of Milton. I applaud Carey's attempt to get Milton back into general reading circulation (it's a wonderful poem!) but I'm not completely sure that this 'reader's digest' approach is the best way to do it. Well done, Faber, too, for an innovative publishing project.
Thanks to Faber for an ARC via NetGalley
June 1, 2019
Is Paradise Lost a masterpiece? Sure.
Is an annotated and abbreviated Essential version helpful? Totes.
Is it still nearly impossible to read like 12,000 lines of poetry? Yep.
Is an annotated and abbreviated Essential version helpful? Totes.
Is it still nearly impossible to read like 12,000 lines of poetry? Yep.
March 17, 2017
Paradise Lost is a work I am repeatedly drawn back to for a re-read. It is effectively a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. But it is so much more than this, because it is a poem rich with description, action, intrigue, love and a vast sweep of emotions that owes its writing to ancient texts. It is a book that has without doubt itself influenced writers ever since it was published.
I have always sensed, in my ‘general reader’ appreciation of Paradise Lost, that Milton has taken The Bible’s version of the ‘fall of man’ and produced a far more nuanced and balanced narration of the tale. Satan and the other fallen angels have been cast out from Heaven and I have always felt, reading Milton’s version of events, they had a raw deal from an overbearing and unreasonably demanding patriarch. There is a delicate manoeuvring of Eve through insidious deception to make her take a bite of the forbidden fruit and encourage Adam to do so as well. Yet instead of using it as an argument for the punishment of woman for Eve’s transgressions, Paradise Lost, certainly to a modern audience, appears to lean towards a sympathetic approach to an individual who has been mercilessly manipulated.
So when a new edition was due to be published, which claimed to distil the poem into something a little more manageable, I was curious to see how it had been edited and whether it affected the quality of the poem for a reader like me who is not a Milton scholar, but merely a civilian reader with a great affection for the work.
In the wrong hands the power of the narrative might have been diminished to little more than a lightening tour of a story that needs to be savoured. Fortunately this version has the advantage of an editor bringing his academic viewpoint to the table in considering what to leave out and what to keep, but who is also able to appreciate that there are readers out there who just want to enjoy a great story, which they have previously avoided because it was just too much to take on.
John Carey has removed the tracts of narrative which for today’s audience would slow the overall pace of what should be an engaging and immersive read, because we are generally not as well versed in theological principles and the classics as a seventeenth-century readership.
The verses that are removed are explained in a concise way. The lines of verse are all numbered to tally with the original text, so if the reader then wants to read the two side-by-side (as I did), it is possible to compare and contrast the two.
I found that Carey’s potted version of the excised text actually helped me to get to grips with some very long winded monologues or descriptions, which had previously been difficult for me to unravel because I was spending too much time shifting backwards and forwards between footnotes (although this book has some very helpful footnotes.
The carefully edited poem retains all its power, foregrounding the magnificent descriptions of great battles and places and allowing the characterisations to shine through.
What editions like this do is give a reader who might feel overwhelmed by the full poem a way in by providing way points, which make it possible for them to navigate through the work appreciating the parts of it which really speak to them. After this they may feel more confident in approaching the full work. Certainly as I sat reading the full version and this edited version side by side I began to see things I had not seen before and consider them in a different way, which enriched the reading experience for me.
The Essential Paradise Lost was courtesy of Faber & Faber via NetGalley
I have always sensed, in my ‘general reader’ appreciation of Paradise Lost, that Milton has taken The Bible’s version of the ‘fall of man’ and produced a far more nuanced and balanced narration of the tale. Satan and the other fallen angels have been cast out from Heaven and I have always felt, reading Milton’s version of events, they had a raw deal from an overbearing and unreasonably demanding patriarch. There is a delicate manoeuvring of Eve through insidious deception to make her take a bite of the forbidden fruit and encourage Adam to do so as well. Yet instead of using it as an argument for the punishment of woman for Eve’s transgressions, Paradise Lost, certainly to a modern audience, appears to lean towards a sympathetic approach to an individual who has been mercilessly manipulated.
So when a new edition was due to be published, which claimed to distil the poem into something a little more manageable, I was curious to see how it had been edited and whether it affected the quality of the poem for a reader like me who is not a Milton scholar, but merely a civilian reader with a great affection for the work.
In the wrong hands the power of the narrative might have been diminished to little more than a lightening tour of a story that needs to be savoured. Fortunately this version has the advantage of an editor bringing his academic viewpoint to the table in considering what to leave out and what to keep, but who is also able to appreciate that there are readers out there who just want to enjoy a great story, which they have previously avoided because it was just too much to take on.
John Carey has removed the tracts of narrative which for today’s audience would slow the overall pace of what should be an engaging and immersive read, because we are generally not as well versed in theological principles and the classics as a seventeenth-century readership.
The verses that are removed are explained in a concise way. The lines of verse are all numbered to tally with the original text, so if the reader then wants to read the two side-by-side (as I did), it is possible to compare and contrast the two.
I found that Carey’s potted version of the excised text actually helped me to get to grips with some very long winded monologues or descriptions, which had previously been difficult for me to unravel because I was spending too much time shifting backwards and forwards between footnotes (although this book has some very helpful footnotes.
The carefully edited poem retains all its power, foregrounding the magnificent descriptions of great battles and places and allowing the characterisations to shine through.
What editions like this do is give a reader who might feel overwhelmed by the full poem a way in by providing way points, which make it possible for them to navigate through the work appreciating the parts of it which really speak to them. After this they may feel more confident in approaching the full work. Certainly as I sat reading the full version and this edited version side by side I began to see things I had not seen before and consider them in a different way, which enriched the reading experience for me.
The Essential Paradise Lost was courtesy of Faber & Faber via NetGalley
October 20, 2024
This book retains the most relevant - "essential" - parts of the poem which are connected with a retelling of the missing sections, it is a sort of "greatest hits" collection with extensive liner notes. I think a modern retelling of the whole poem would be better even though one could argue that too much would be lost in such a translation into modern English. Could be true but Carey's approach didn't work for me either because I had to skip most of the original text because it was way beyond my skills, knowledge and patience. However, Introduction, Afterword and Futher Reading sections I find clearly written, extremely illuminating and useful.
January 8, 2020
The author shortened the poem to about a third of its original length and added in some explanations / analysis along the way. Still pretty hard to read, I wish there was more analysis by the author so that I could better understand what was going on.
August 4, 2017
Beautifully written condensed form of Milton's Paradise Lost
March 28, 2020
I’m guessing I was supposed to like the poem more and the commentary less.
November 30, 2020
Short PL.
September 15, 2022
This poem slaps.
November 15, 2022
DNF, will try again to read in future, when the time is right.
April 19, 2017
I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
The Essential Paradise Lost is a book by John Carey that seeks to condense the legendary epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton into a length more accessible to modern-day audiences by cutting out and summarizing the less relevant passages of the poem in order to focus more on the characters and the central story. Along with this new condensing of the poem comes several analytical essays about the meaning and impact of the poem, all penned by John Carey. The Essential Paradise Lost is a valiant attempt at making Milton’s dense poem more accessible to the general public; however, it doesn’t quite succeed.
I've only managed to read Paradise Lost through various translations that have tried to translate it into a more modernized English than the original poem is written in. As much as I love Milton's style, it tends to be incredibly difficult for me to be able to give the poem as much attention as it deserves as my brain struggles to properly decode the language and syntax Milton uses. So, I've always found it easier to read modern English translations of the poem, but I was looking forward to seeing what this book would be able to offer.
I appreciated the attempt to condense the poem into a readable length by summarizing sections of the poem that weren't as important to the overall story. This was a smart move on Carey's behalf. And, to a degree, it worked. But I'm not sure it worked as well as he intended it to. The difference in style between the poem itself and the summaries of the missing sections was jarring to the point of taking me out of the experience altogether. It didn't help make the poem much more accessible to me, unfortunately.
That being said, I think the essays at the beginning of the book proved particularly enlightening as did the annotations layered throughout the poem itself. I appreciated the analysis that Carey provided through those opening essays; they were probably the best part of the book. The annotations used throughout the poem helped provide context and understanding to some of the more difficult concepts and words, and that was incredibly useful.
Unfortunately, even with Carey's attempt to condense the poem, I still find the poem itself to be largely dense and hard to tackle. A translation done in modernized English with Carey's clear skill and love for the source material might have been a more successful route to have taken.
Regardless, it was a good attempt at condensing the poem, and for anyone with a passing interest in Paradise Lost, it is a must read!
The Essential Paradise Lost is a book by John Carey that seeks to condense the legendary epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton into a length more accessible to modern-day audiences by cutting out and summarizing the less relevant passages of the poem in order to focus more on the characters and the central story. Along with this new condensing of the poem comes several analytical essays about the meaning and impact of the poem, all penned by John Carey. The Essential Paradise Lost is a valiant attempt at making Milton’s dense poem more accessible to the general public; however, it doesn’t quite succeed.
I've only managed to read Paradise Lost through various translations that have tried to translate it into a more modernized English than the original poem is written in. As much as I love Milton's style, it tends to be incredibly difficult for me to be able to give the poem as much attention as it deserves as my brain struggles to properly decode the language and syntax Milton uses. So, I've always found it easier to read modern English translations of the poem, but I was looking forward to seeing what this book would be able to offer.
I appreciated the attempt to condense the poem into a readable length by summarizing sections of the poem that weren't as important to the overall story. This was a smart move on Carey's behalf. And, to a degree, it worked. But I'm not sure it worked as well as he intended it to. The difference in style between the poem itself and the summaries of the missing sections was jarring to the point of taking me out of the experience altogether. It didn't help make the poem much more accessible to me, unfortunately.
That being said, I think the essays at the beginning of the book proved particularly enlightening as did the annotations layered throughout the poem itself. I appreciated the analysis that Carey provided through those opening essays; they were probably the best part of the book. The annotations used throughout the poem helped provide context and understanding to some of the more difficult concepts and words, and that was incredibly useful.
Unfortunately, even with Carey's attempt to condense the poem, I still find the poem itself to be largely dense and hard to tackle. A translation done in modernized English with Carey's clear skill and love for the source material might have been a more successful route to have taken.
Regardless, it was a good attempt at condensing the poem, and for anyone with a passing interest in Paradise Lost, it is a must read!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews