Paradise Lost

Milton's Paradise Lost
$24.99
I am thrilled with this book. The artwork is wonderful. The book arrived in perfect condition. I am very happy.

Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Edition)
$12.99
Paradise is certainly one of the greatest achievements of English literature. And as an editor, Tesky seems to disregard this fact. First of all, he omits critical punctuation from the poem, which can seriously alter your understanding of what is going on:

"[God} made the stars/ And set them in the firmament of heav'n/ T'illuminate the earth and rule the day/ In their vicissitude and rule the night/ And light from darkness to divide." (VII. 348-52)

This is clumsy editing, and cross referencing other editions will show that the comma between "the night" and "and light" is retained; without it, the sentence makes little sense.

This is only one example of the gross injustices done to Milton's poem: parentheses where parentheses do not belong, misspellings, unnecessary footnotes (literally half of the footnotes you will find merely tell you that two words are elided), and omissions of information that could be helpful. It seems as if Tesky delights in telling you things you either already know or can infer from the context. Tesky's modernization of Paradise Lost is awkward and ill-managed, insulting to the unfamiliar student, and to the memory of Milton.

Tesky does, however, include a glossary of biblical and mythological terms which may be unfamiliar to many (but which were much more recognizable to Milton's contemporaries), and this is hardly found in many editions of Paradise Lost. Tesky also gives critical articles on subjects as diverse as the character of Satan, gender distinctions, and even the agency of the angel Abdiel. While there is alot to learn from this edition, scarcely any of it comes from Tesky himself; he ends up doing more damage than good. In my opinion, stay away from this edition.

Paradise Lost (Dover Giant Thrift Editions)
$5.00


Paradise Lost is English heroic verse of the first order: pure, inspiring, instructive.

This Dover Edition is well organized and a delight to read.

Merry Christmas all,

Vince Parrett

Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)
$12.00
I was a big fan of the super-cool reality shows "Paradise Hotel" and "Paradise Hotel 2" and thought this was going to be a juicy behind the scenes tell-all. I mean, look at the naked chick on the cover! SCORE! So I get this home and guess what? It's not about "Paradise Hotel" or any TV show for that matter. Even worse, I can't make heads or tails of this nonsense. The words look like they're in English, but it reads like Chinese. I don't know who this "John Milton" is, but he sounds like a guy from special ed who was allowed to write a book and get it published because people felt sorry for him or something. A total waste of time and money.