The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. This edition pays typographic tribute to two earlier editions of Milton’s epic poem: the second edition of 1674, when the text was divided into twelve books rather than ten, and the second Baskerville edition of 1759. Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (16081674). His appended “Note on the Text” explains the modifications. But because hes such a tremendous writer.

Shawcross, an eminent Miltonist at the University of Kentucky, developed a modernized text for the Arion edition. For a writer who focused on the importance of debate and the consequences of choices in his three major epics-Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson. Ironically so, because John Milton was a Christian, and he did not write Paradise Lost in any way to honor the Devil. Changes by a succession of publishers reflected typographic conventions and scholarship of the day mistakes and inconsistencies were often perpetuated. Paradise Lost was Miltons masterpiece, written over a period of years and after its author had gone completely blind.

Inconsistent writing and recopying by different scribes, numerous corrections in the manuscript, and the application of house styles in addition to errors by printers contributed to the unreliability of the spelling, punctuation, and capitalization of the text. Milton composed Paradise Lost after 1652, when he had gone blind, dictating it from memory to a secretary. Having left Cambridge around 1632, Milton was now living with his parents on the outskirts of London, during a post-university interlude in which he also composed the major poems L’Allegro and.

Books of john milton