A Preface to Paradise Lost

by C.S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis’s illuminating reflections on Milton’s Paradise Lost, the seminal classic that profoundly influenced Christian thought as well as Lewis’s own.

In Preface to Paradise Lost, the Christian apologist and revered scholar and professor of literature closely examines the style, content, structure, and themes of Milton’s masterpiece, a retelling of the biblical story of the Fall of Humankind, Satan’s temptation, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Considering the story within the context of the Western literary tradition, Lewis offers invaluable insights into Paradise Lost and the nature of literature itself, unveiling the poem’s beauty and its wisdom.

Lewis explains and defends the literary form known as “Epic,” pondering simple yet perceptive questions such  What is an Epic? Why, in the seventeenth century, did Milton choose to write his story in this style? In what sense is Paradise Lost similar to the Homeric poems or the Anglo Saxon Beowulf? In what sense did Milton develop Virgil’s legacy? 

With the clarity of thought and style that are the hallmarks of his writing, Lewis provides answers with a lucidity and lightness that deepens our understanding of this literary form and both illuminates Milton’s immortal epic and its meaning and inspires readers to revisit it. Ultimately, he reminds us why elements including ritual, splendor, and joy deserve to exist and hold a sacred place in human life. 

One of Lewis’s most revered scholarly works, Preface to Paradise Lost is indispensable for literature, philosophy, and religion scholars and for ardent fans of Lewis’s writings. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Classics, Poetry, Literature, Cs Lewis, Religion

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.

Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]

Reviews

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

2022 update: updated to 5 stars. The more I understand the better I like it.

I found the early chapters on epic poetry extremely helpful. His words on Paradise Lost were also enlightening. I love how Lewis respects his readers and writes as if he is just having a conversation, sometimes just throwing out thoughts he isn't quite sure about yet.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Don't let the title fool you! It's about way more than Paradise Lost. Lewis traces the expectations behind Paradise Lost by looking at Homer and Virgil and Beowulf. C.S. Lewis knew why he loved books. Makes me want to read Milton.

His defense of Milton's Style had this fine gem, worth quoting at length:

"The older poetry, by continually insisting on certain Stock themes--as that love is sweet, death bitter, virtue lovely, and children or gardens delightful--was performing a service not only of moral and civil, but even of biological, importance. Once again, the old critics were quite right when they said that poetry "instructed by delighting," for poetry was formerly one of the chief means whereby each new generation learned, not to copy, but by copying to make, the good Stock responses. Since poetry has abandoned that office the world has not bettered. While the moderns have been pressing forward to conquer new territories of consciousness, the old territory, in which alone a man can live, has been left unguarded, and we are in danger of finding the enemy in our rear. We need most urgently to recover the lost poetic art of enriching a response without making it eccentric, and of being normal without being vulgar. Meanwhile--until that recovery is made--such poetry as Milton's is more than ever necessary to us."

So that's why we read fiction.

[M.G. Bianco · Rating 5 out of 5]

C.S. Lewis writes what may be a very poorly titled book in A Preface to Paradise Lost.

Certainly, the last half of the book, or so, is a book about how to enjoy and understand John Milton's Paradise Lost. The first half of the book, however, is a book about epic poetry. Lewis makes some very poignant observations about epic poetry in general and about The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, and the Aeneid specifically, in addition to Paradise Lost.

His clear favorite, I'm sure, is Virgil's The Aeneid. He sees it as an improvement, or at least, an advancement of Homer's tales. He also sees flaws in Milton's Paradise Lost that he believes Virgil does not make. Any student or teacher interested in epic poetry in general or in any one or more of the epic poems named would do well to read Lewis's preface. Don't be deceived by the title.

[Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I've engaged off and on with his poetry over the decades ever since junior high school, Milton has never been a favorite poet of mine. Paradise Lost is still the only work from his pen that I have yet to read (I've read some excerpts from it at times, which isn't really a fair way to judge it). Back in 2023, when I finished a partial read of The Poems of John Milton (the 2nd, 1953 edition of the collection edited by James Holly Hanford), I was quite content to leave it that way. But my fellow Goodreader Donnally convinced me that this would be doing the author an injustice, and that to fairly appreciate him, I need to reckon with his masterpiece. Accordingly, I hope to read it later this year. Given its title, however, it occurred to me that the book I'm reviewing here (which Hanford includes in his bibliography), which I just finished earlier this week, might be a really helpful resource to read first --especially considering that I'm not an English literature major, and lack a strong educational background relating to the author and the period or, really, to poetry in general.

Of course, a strong educational background in medieval and Renaissance literature was one of the things C. S. Lewis brought to this study, which grew out of a series of lectures he'd delivered at University College in northern Wales the previous year. He was a world-class scholar in that field, and also well versed in classical Greek and Latin literature (which is relevant here, given the influence of that canon on Milton). Like Milton (and like this reviewer), he was also a committed Christian with a basic sympathy towards Milton's literary purpose and essential message, and able to understand and explain it from that perspective. Most of my previous acquaintance with Lewis' nonfiction, in fact, was with his Christian apologetic and theological writings, and all of it was with works written for general and lay audiences. This book and the lectures that underlie it, however, are part of his academic writing, written as a professor for fellow professors and for undergraduate and graduate college students. While he's writing clearly and lucidly with the intention of being understood by his readers, as he always does, the treatment here is heavier sledding at times than it usually is in his more popular-level books. As some other reviewers have noted, despite the title of this one, it seems to presuppose that the readers have read Milton's poem before, and is probably best understood if you have. (It's a preface to the serious, college-level study of the poem; but in the early 1940s, Lewis could assume that British college undergrads would have at least read it in secondary school.) For all that, I was able to follow the bulk of the material here, and to get a great deal out of it.

This is a short, jargon-free read, at just 137 pages of actual text (I finished it in eight days); but it packs a lot of serious content, and takes thought to fully appreciate. Lewis begins by taking into account the fact that Milton deliberately chose to write this poem as an epic, a specific form which in the literary world of that day required certain stylistic conventions; and he sets this epic in the context of the prior tradition of the form (particularly in Homer, Virgil, and Beowulf). These chapters really made me aware of the degree to which my scanty familiarity with the literature that preceded and influenced Milton, and with epic poetry in particular, has been a handicap in appreciating his work here. (The only two epics I've ever read are Beowulf and Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha; and I'm not sure that Lewis would include the latter in his definition.) A quality of epic poetry that Lewis emphasizes here is its deliberately elevated style (which he calls solemnity), as compared to everyday diction; it has an intentional sumptuousness of expression that marks it as special and celebratory, so that reading it is a symbolic participation in a communal experience that's lifted above the ordinary routine. It relates to regular poetry the same way that Christmas festal fare relates to everyday cuisine; the elements are “familiar” to the participants in the experience, but familiar in their character as components of a holiday (“holy-day”) rather than as mundane and commonplace. So what I perceived as “stilted and unrealistic” dialogue and “wordy and flowery” style in quotations or excerpts from Paradise Lost is not a regrettable stylistic problem on Milton's part, but rather a purposive compositional feature that's essential the effect he's seeking to create for his readers.

Moving on to the aspects of this poem in particular, Lewis considers Milton's theology, as it's expressed here (and generally speaking, he considers the theology here to be essentially just that of classical Christianity in its basics); the concept of a “hierarchy of being” and its centrality in Milton's worldview; the portrayal of Satan's rebellion and the mistaken perception of Satan as the true “hero” of the poem; the depiction of Adam and Eve in their fallen and unfallen states, and the ideas that go into this; and much more. A point that I found particularly interesting is the idea that even though angels, like God, are “spirits,” many intellectuals in Milton's time believed that, as created spirits, unlike God, angels actually have physical bodies/substance, though of a nature distinct and less dense than those of humans and animals, and normally invisible to human eyes. This explains the many references in the poem to angelic corporeality; Milton apparently believed that it reflected reality.

That segues into another insight I came to through this read, not because Lewis directly states it, but because his whole treatment presupposes it to such a degree that a light bulb finally couldn't help coming on in my head. :-) One of my beefs with Paradise Lost (or, at least, the parts I've read) has been that “...while it purports to be describing primeval history as recorded in the Bible, it's almost entirely a work of Milton's imagination, relating events the Bible never describes, with anthropomorphic angels... going through their paces in an improbable speculative fantasy....” But it doesn't really purport to be describing the actual events, nor even to try to recreate them as a historical novelist would. In keeping with the demands of the epic form, it's important to Milton that the basic events here –creation, the primeval rebellion of Satan and his followers, the creation of the first human pair, their fall into the sin of disobedience, and God's response of redeeming grace-- really happened, but his presentation of how they happened is intended to be an elaborate speculation, with frankly invented speeches and dialogue (and often invented characters), but all of which is meant to express genuine truths about the meaning of what happened. The nature of the poem has much more in common with Lewis' own The Great Divorce and similar works than it necessarily does with even a historical novel depicting later biblical events; it's truth is on the level of theological and moral realities about how created minds should think about themselves, each other and their Creator (as contrasted with how they too often do think), not on the level of “this is pretty much what must have literally happened, and a video camera would have registered stuff a lot like this!” Once that distinction is grasped (and I don't know if I convey it well!), it becomes possible to view the poem in quite a different light.

[Note: This book is furnished with an index, and an Appendix (each about 2 1/2 pages long) of “Notes on certain passages” explaining particular features of various difficult lines in the poem. (I didn't use the former, and didn't read the latter, because it's not of much use without the text of the poem in front of you.) No bibliography is provided; but Lewis does at times quote or refer to the views of other literary scholars, and always respectfully even in the cases where he disagrees with them.]

More than once, Lewis points out the importance, if this poem is to be truly understood, of entering as fully as possible into the mindset of Milton and his original readers; and that's not something I've ever truly done, even though I've approached the work with the perspective of a (modern) Christian believer. That was an eye-opening revelation, which has me re-thinking some of my stances. I don't think I could have picked a better book than this one to read as a “Preface,” in the sense that Lewis meant that; and it has me actually looking forward to tackling the poem itself, a reaction I truly didn't expect!

[Brian Robbins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Lewis' work whether it be fiction, essays, religious matters, even some of his poetry, but he is undoubtedly at his best in his professional capacity, writing as a professor on his subject of medieval and renaissance literature.

This study of “Paradise Lost” was a delight to read. He uses his extensive scholarship with a delightful light touch, and teaches a considerable amount about the background, the form and content of the work in a very lucid and helpful style. Where he disagreed with the views of other academics, even where he disagreed fundamentally – for instance with Saurat over the nature of Miltons theology as shown in the poem - this was done graciously, and was a pleasure to read. Often in his religious writings he resorts to the equivelant of a blunderbuss or heavy club in assailing anyone with whom he disagrees. This can be extremely irritating. Here, there was little of that, except maybe when writing about the views of those who upheld a “modernist” approach to poetry.

I still don’t know enough of or about the poem or of other critics of the poem, to be able to compare Lewis’ view with differing views; but it was fascinating just to read someone who was extremely knowledgable and well read on the concept of epic poetry, and who had also probably read all the relevant works of epic poetry. It was equally interesting to read someone who personally enjoyed the genre, but also who wholeheartedly believed in the literal truth of the underlying biblical story on which the poem was based. This sharing of fundamental belief with the author adds a sympathy to Lewis’ insights that makes them fundamentally different from those who don’t share that belief. I don’t necessarily know if that makes them more valuable, but it added a warmth and enthusiasm that was hard to resist, a warmth and enthusiasm that made me want to go back and re-read passages as he referred to them.

Lewis is like Chesterton to a large extent, in that all his writing and judgements rest explicitly on the foundation of his faith, as well as on a foundation of highly conservative, traditional views of culture and society. He therefore could not resist launching into discussion of fundamental values and beliefs, and criticsm of those aspects of the culture of his day that were in conflict with his views. I’m sure that it’s ever possible for an author to avoid doing this. What I do like about Lewis, is that he makes no pretence that it’s possible to avoid doing so, that in some way he’s writing from an objective point of view.

[Momina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely done! I found Lewis' style to be slightly pedantic in the beginning but it gradually grew on me. He presents his arguments in a well-knitted, logical and convincing manner and I especially enjoyed the chapters "Is Criticism Possible?" and "The Doctrine of the Unchanging Human Heart". Very nicely argued! Also, he touches upon the famous "Satanic predicament": whether or not Satan was the real, intended hero of Paradise Lost. Lewis argues against the William Blake notion, and very intelligently. He also defends Adam which seemed to me to be quite a daring thing to do! Not many critics see in Adam anything heroic or admirable, but Lewis pleads his case with great conviction. The last few chapters on Milton's theology, his concept of angels, and the Fall in general are also some of the most informative and interesting chapters in the book.

I wasn't expecting this book to be enjoyable as books of criticism are mostly preconceived to be dry and tedious. But Lewis, with his wit, humor and logical acuity, keeps the reader engaged and fascinated. I must also applaud the subjects he chose for his discourse: rather than writing a nauseating panegyric on Milton's style and themes, he chooses quite different and interesting areas of study.

Recommended to students of Milton and to classical epic enthusiasts in general. The latter because, in the first few chapters, Milton discusses the traditional epic as written by Homer and Virgil and also comments upon Beowulf. An informative read, indeed!

[Becky Pliego]

2023: The things I understood were great; but many others were beyond my ability to fully understand. I am grateful for books that force me to focus and think harder. Now unto Paradise Lost.

[J. Alfred · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently heard from one of my professors that "when you read Lewis' critical stuff, you wonder 'wow, how did people ever get published with stuff like this?'" I pulled this off the shelf to reassure myself that such statements are silly, and it worked. A book like this would have trouble getting published today, but that's just to say that people like Lewis did their jobs back then: we have no room for sweeping, incisive criticism like this anymore because it's been done, and we need to chop our subjects up into tiny pieces to "create knowledge" about them now. Lewis is astonishing because his specialty is Literature. Not this or that sort of literature, but all of it. He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs, and peep about to find dishonorable graves.

[Christine Norvell · Rating 5 out of 5]

My third reading was just as beneficial as my first. I love this as both a Homer and Milton source.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's all the in-between bits and pieces, set around Lewis's analyzation of PL, that make this book worth reading. Short and easy, though seeped in the lit critics of his day.

Quotes:

"For who can endure a doc­ trine which would allow only dentists to say whether our teeth were aching, only cobblers to say whether our shoes hurt us, and only governments to tell us whether we were being well governed?"

"The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readi­ness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual."

[on poetry] "The whole art consists not in evoking the unexpected, but in evoking with a perfection and accuracy beyond expectation the very image that has haunted us all our lives."

"When our participation in a rite becomes perfect we think no more of ritual, but are engrossed by that about which the rite is performed; but afterwards we recognize that ritual was the sole method by which this concentration could be achieved.... A schoolboy who reads a page of Milton by chance, for the first time, and then looks up and says, 'By gum!' not in the least knowing how the thing has worked, but only that new strength and width and brightness and zest have transformed his world, is nearer to the truth than they."

"And Milton goes on to explain that God's withdrawal consists not in a spatial retrac­tion, but in 'not putting forth His goodness'; that is, there are parts of space over which God is not exercising His efficacy, though He is still, in some undefined mode, present in them."

"In the religious life man faces God and God faces man. But in the epic it is feigned, for the moment, that we, as readers, can step aside and see the faces both of God and man in profile. We are not invited (as Alexander would have said) to enjoy the spiritual life, but to contemplate the whole pattern within which the spiritual life arises. Making use of a distinction of Johnson's we might say that the subject of the poem 'is not piety, but the motives to piety'."

"The moment you put it into words you falsify it. It is like trying to see what a thing looks like when you are not looking at it. You cannot make a true picture of that no-man's-land between the visible and the in­ visible which exists on the edges of our field of vision, because just in so far as you make a picture you are bringing it into the centre. I do not say that it may not be fun to try."

[Haley Baumeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps this would have been better to read *after* reading Paradise Lost, as a lot of it went over my head without the context.

Nevertheless, there were brilliant gems in there which stopped me in my tracks, that had nothing particularly to do with Milton's work. Just the kinda stuff you would expect when Lewis gets to talking about things he cares about.

[Amy Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the ultimate focus of this book is John Milton's Paradise Lost, the first eight or nine chapters have a broader scope. Lewis takes the reader through the history of epic poetry, identifying primary epics (e.g. Homer's works) and secondary epics (e.g. Milton's Paradise Lost), and discussing the subjects, techniques, and style of each.

Lewis comments on the great works in the early chapters: Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Beowulf, Dante's Commedia, and Faerie Queen. Because of this, I recommend this book as an aid to anyone tackling these classics. Lewis helps the reader understand the progression of epic poetry over the course of the ages and how this legacy affected Milton when he set out to write his own epic.

Lewis says that primary epics were composed for recitation before an audience; secondary epics were composed to be read by individuals sitting in their armchairs. Lewis explains that Homer's works are not called oral poetry because they were never written down, but because they were written for recitation. Because of this, Homer makes effective use of repetition and stock phrases. This is not laziness or to make it easier for memorization, but for the sake of the listener. Repetition and stock phrases make it easier for the listener to follow the story and to process the language he is hearing.

In chapters 10 to 19, Lewis focuses on Paradise Lost. He examines its theology and, for the most part, defends Milton against charges of heresy by showing how closely Milton's theology aligns with Augustine's theology.

The section on hierarchy is probably one of the most significant when it comes to understanding Paradise Lost. Without a proper understanding of hierarchy, I think it really isn't possible to receive Paradise Lost as it was meant to be received. Hierarchy in modern times has been almost totally flattened and modern (post-modern!) readers need to make a conscious effort in order to understand it. In doing so, one realizes just how completely the idea of hierarchy has been rendered illegitimate in contemporary thought--and how much I have subtly accepted this thinking. This is a fascinating development, because for Milton, the root of Satan's fall, and of Eve's and Adam's, grows out of a rebellion against the God-ordained hierarchy. One is left contemplating what this means for us, given our own disdain for hierarchy.

Lewis also seeks to defend Milton against William Blake's suggestion that Milton made Satan his hero. Lewis argues that Milton, along with all of his readers, can relate to Satan far more than he and they can relate to the sinless and unfallen creature, much less the Divine. It is much harder to imagine a pure Mind than a diabolical one, given the fact that we ourselves are diabolical. I am not doing this thought justice (go read what Lewis wrote), but when I read it I immediately thought of boys everywhere, who almost without exception, want to pretend to be the villain.

A very enthusiastic five stars for this book, particularly for readers who are reading any of the great classics listed above.

[Ruth Donigian · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Excerpts)
Lewis can write anything and it will be fantastic.

[Josiah Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book is equal parts Preface to Paradise Lost and Intro to Poetry, which was incredibly helpful to me. I didn't even know this book by Lewis existed until I saw it on a Book Barn shelf and bought it instinctively (this is one instinct that has yet to fail me.) In my effort to understand and appreciate poetry more this small book was only helpful and enlightening.
"Very roughly, we might almost say that in Rhetoric imagination is present for the sake of passion (and, therefore, in the long run, for the sake of action), while in poetry passion is present for the sake of imagination, and therefore, in the long run, for the sake of wisdom or spiritual health—the rightness and richness of a man's total response to the world...that is why the old critics were right enough when they said that Poetry taught by delighting, or delighted by teaching."

[Ashley Hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars solely because it's Lewis. I struggled with this one, but it was fully thought-prevoking.

[Hon Lady Selene [on a hiatus] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leave it to Lewis to draw a remarkable parallel between Jane Austen and Milton's Satan just to blow my mind as I went innocently into this essay thinking it's just about Paradise Lost. Instead I got an erudite lecture of Platonic Theologians and Ficino (first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin). Top notch but 4/5 as he could have (as per usual) spared me some of his personal Christianity.

"To admire Satan, then, is to give one's vote not only for a
world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of
wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography. Yet the choice is
possible. Hardly a day passes without some slight movement
towards it in each one of us. That is what makes Paradise Lost
so serious a poem. The thing is possible, and the exposure of it
is resented. Where Paradise Lost is not loved, it is deeply hated.
As Keats said more rightly than he knew, 'there is death' in
Milton. We have all skirted the Satanic island closely enough
to have motives for wishing to evade the full impact of the
poem. For, I repeat, the thing is possible ; and after a certain
point it is prized. Sir Willoughby may be unhappy, but he
wants to go on being Sir Willoughby. Satan wants to go on being
Satan. That is the real meaning of his choice 'Better to reign
in Hell, than serve in Heaven.' "

* * *

"I had much rather know what I should feel
like if I adopted the beliefs of Lucretius than how Lucretius
would have felt if he had never entertained them. The possible
Lucretius in myself interests me more than the possible C. S.
Lewis in Lucretius. There is in G. K. Chesterton's Avowals and
Denials a wholly admirable essay called On Man : Heir of All the
Ages. An heir is one who inherits and 'any man who is cut off
from the past ... is a man most unjustly disinherited'. To
enjoy our full humanity we ought, so far as is possible, to contain
within us potentially at all times, and on occasion to
actualize, all the modes of feeling and thinking through which
man has passed. You must, so far as in you lies, become an
Achaean chief while reading Homer, a medieval knight while
reading Malory, and an eighteenth century Londoner while
reading Johnson. Only thus will you be able to judge the work
'in the same spirit that its author writ' and to avoid chimerical
criticism.

For what would you not give to have a real, live Epicurean at your
elbow while reading Lucretius?"
***

[Lexi V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for ENGL 385

This didn't actually help me with my dislike of Paradise Lost, but it did take me down a peg or two in my judgment of how well John Milton achieved his literary goals. My favorite part is Chapter IV: The Technique of Primary Epic, in which he writes about why we need ritual and how modernity has lost the art of truly enjoying ritual.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me awhile to read, for such a short book it seems ridiculous, but his lectures definitely pack a punch. I kept thinking what it must have been like to be in his live lectures. It was above my level but I still gained insight into what Milton was doing. Lewis thinks about things from every angle, he is very thorough in his thinking and I appreciate it.

I think it would make the most sense to read it after Paradise Lost if it’s your first reading.

[Daniel · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. As a long-time lover of Lewis, I tend to forget that his main gig was literary criticism, and he was damn good it at. At its best, this was page turning stuff; not just a guide to Milton, but also a fine primer on Homer, the Aeneid, and Beowulf. There are few chapters which felt somewhat clunky, and Lewis was very much a man in a man’s world, but finishing this book makes me eager to bump some of his other books on literature higher up my reading list.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PDF here.

Read this in my Milton course at Bob Jones University with Dr. Caren Silvester (Fall 2005). It's very good, and I'd probably give it 5 stars a second time around.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent. Also read around September of 1986.

[Scott Bielinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Lewis is the literary Lewis. Packed with brilliant insights. Because Lewis believes poetry is for wisdom, he is an exceptional guide through an exceptional poem.

"If Heaven and Earth are ransacked for simile and allusion, this is not done for display, but in order to guide our imaginations with unobtrusive pressure into the channels where the poet wishes them to flow . . ." (44-45).

[Maja Reads]

an unintended byproduct of reading this book is that i understand a lot of lewis' imagery in out of the silent planet a lot better!!

this book is called "a preface to paradise lost", which is why i read it before reading paradise lost, but lewis shares a lot of his own opinions on the poem and addresses a lot of arguments/criticisms against the poem as well. i wish he had stuck more to interpretation and stuff, namely just because by sheer merit of the fact that he is c.s. lewis i know i won't have an objective perspective heading into paradise lost and i'll feel inclined to just agree w everything he has said here. but i suppose time will tell

[Joshua Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A review by my favorite author on the greatest piece of literature ever composed in the English language. Yes it is worth 5 stars.

[Cleo · Rating 5 out of 5]

C.S. Lewis does it again. Not only does he supply enlightening commentary to accompany a reading of Paradise Lost, but he touches on a number of other books and subjects, conveying fascinating information in an extremely accessible narrative.

A Preface to Paradise Lost is a compilation of Lewis' Ballard Matthews Lectures, which he gave in 1941 to students at the University College of Northern Wales. Lewis' expertise was Medieval and Renaissance literature, and while reading this book, it is apparent that he is in his element, as he covers not only Paradise Lost but also gives the reader an introduction to the genre of epic and insights into how to read it.

Lewis' initial chapters --- more than one-third of the book --- cover epic poetry, both primary and secondary, and he provides numerous examples contrasting the two, from The Odyssey, The Iliad, Beowulf, The Aeneid and, of course, Paradise Lost, to further the readers' understanding. Next, in a lecture titled, The Unchanging Human Heart, he deals with how to read a poem (or book), which is perhaps my favourite lecture of all. How do we deal with the gulf between our era and the author's? Do we read only for what is relevant to us, or do we attempt to engage with the author? Lewis deals with both approaches:

"A method often recommended may be called the method of The Unchanging Human Heart. According to this method the things which separate one age from another are superficial ……. if we stripped [off the superficialities] …… we should find beneath … an anatomy identical with our own ….. we shall find the Unchanging Human Heart, and on this we are to concentrate.

I held this theory myself for many years, but I have now abandoned it. I continue, of course, to admit that if you remove from people the things that make them different, what is left must be the same, and that the Human Heart will certainly appear as Unchanging if you ignore its changes ……. [thus] our whole study of the poem will then become a battle between us and the author in which we are trying to twist his work into a shape he never gave it, to make him use the loud pedal where he really used the soft, to force into false prominence what he took in his stride, and to slur over what he actually threw into prominence ……….. I do not say that even on these terms we shall not get some value out of our reading; but we must not imagine that we are appreciating the works the old writers actually wrote ……

Fortunately, there is a better way. Instead of stripping the knight of his armour you can try to put his armour on yourself ………. I would much rather know what I should feel like if I adopted the beliefs of Lucretius than how Lucretius would have felt if he had never entertained them. The possible Lucretius in myself interests me more than the possible C.S. Lewis in Lucretius ……

To enjoy our full humanity we ought, so far as is possible, to contain within us potentially at all times, and on occasion to actualize, all the modes of feeling and thinking through which man has passed …….. Only thus will you be able to judge the work 'in the same spirit that its author writ' and to avoid chimerical criticism. It is better to study the changes in which the being of the Human Heart largely consists than to amuse ourselves with fictions about its immutability ………."

Finally Lewis delves into Paradise Lost, but instead of summarizing the chapters, Lewis concentrates on expounding on particular characters and certain themes. He explores the poem's theology, hierarchy, Satan, Satan's followers, the angels, Adam and Eve, unfilled sexuality, and the Fall. Addressing some of the controversies over the poem, Lewis deals with the difficulties with his typical logical summations and a sprinkling of dry wit. And while mostly praising Milton's achievement, he does not hesitate to point out perceived flaws in the work, and while doing so, gives the reader a more profound comprehension of the challenges of Milton's task.

While amazingly thorough, Lewis' writing is simple, clear and understandable. His lectures encourage the reader to read critically, and his explanation of Milton's worldview is not only helpful, but necessary, to gain a good understanding of the poem. While being very readable, this guide is the definitive "go-to" book for tackling Paradise Lost for readers who want to go in-depth with their study.

[Justin Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This evening I finished reading C.S.Lewis's book of literary criticism A Preface To Paradise Lost, which he dedicated to his friend and fellow Inkling, Charles Williams.
This fascinating book on John Milton's masterpiece Paradise Lost, which I have read some of, was challenging, engaging, funny in parts when he poked fun at T.S.Eliot, and deeply moving. Lewis delves deeply into the literature and mythology that influenced Milton, as well as his personal theology.
It must have been an incredible sight hearing Lewis lecture in person on literature, art, myth, theology, and language.To some degree, I had some sense of what that must have been like when I was in Oxford, England back in March of 2018. Those ten days were some of the happiest days of my life.

[Tori Samar · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is—what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used."

Consistently scholarly, never boring. Yet another book chock full of Lewisian wisdom. An excellent way to get your bearings before reading Paradise Lost. Lewis will rescue you from reading Milton's masterpiece improperly, through a modern lens, and instead show you how to read it as Milton actually intended. Along the way, you will learn much not only about Paradise Lost but also about epic poetry as a whole.

[Daniel Gish · Rating 5 out of 5]

[I will be adding more to this review, but for now this mini review will stand. Until then, dinner calls]

(4.5/5) This showed me that, without a doubt, Lewis was a professor of medieval literature. His expansive knowledge and quotations from other literary works (not to mention knowledge of Paradise Lost itself) were impressive to the highest degree.

His purpose summarized in his own words was, “mainly to ‘hinder hindrances' to the appreciation of Paradise Lost” (pp. 129). But it’s about so much more than that.

There is many quotes I wish to add and plan to create some notes for myself on. The one I’ll choose to add here is that I now know what “middle earth” means (at least assuming Lewis’ mention implies what Tolkien thought as well). “As long as we live in merry middle earth it is necessary to have middle things. If the round table is abolished, for every one who rises to the level of Galahad, a hundred will drop plumb down to that of Mordred.”

[More quotes to follow at a later time]

[Alyssa Bohon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real treat - here is Lewis, who always seems to have the ability to put bricks into the gaps of my paradigm, doing it again while simultaneously explaining with absolute brilliance a work that is a small part of that paradigm. He not only discusses PL but other epic poetry in the great tradition, so it ties in a lot of what makes great literature great.

I've visited PL twice in the past 8 years and I can't imagine reading this book as a first-time 'preface'. It explains much that is confusing, enriches much that should be appreciated, but my familiarity with the work was essential to enjoying the book. It felt more like a compact set of lectures, a mini lit class with Lewis - and like all delightful old lit professors, his side rants are the best part of class - politics, sex, Disney movies (discover his most and least favorite parts of Snow White), heresy-hunting, what else?..Oh yes, that wonderful pain of feeling your very nature exposed by the keen insight on humanity which makes Lewis a treasure to so many.

One thing that stood out to me was how much his thoughts on PL connect to themes in his Space Trilogy. Since the Space Trilogy is one of my favorite works, these connections were a delight.

[Patrick Hinkel]

First time pregaming literature.

I’d recommend it if you’re a freakin nerd because it’s pretty academic. Still pretty interesting and had insights into epic poems. On to the main party