Paradise Lost

Milton's celebrated epic poem, now in a gorgeous new clothbound edition designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. These delectable and collectable editions are bound in high-quality, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.

In Paradise Lost Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and briefly in danger of execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men', or exposes the cruelty of Christianity. John Milton (1608-1674) spent his early years in scholarly pursuit. In 1649 he took up the cause for the new Commonwealth, defending the English revolution both in English and Latin - and sacrificing his eyesight in the process. He risked his life by publishing The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth on the eve of the Restoration (1660). His great poems were published after this political defeat. John Leonard is a Professor of English at the University of Western Ontario.

Penguin Clothbound Classics are bound in cloth and not paper. The design is stamped on in foil, and each cover repeats one small icon taken from the story. The series was designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith, who took her inspiration from Victorian bookbinding. Each book has coloured endpapers and a ribbon bookmark. They make beautiful presents.

The foil can rub off if the books are stacked tightly, so give them a little room on the shelf.

Author: John Milton

Poetry by individual poets

Published on 1 May 2014 by Penguin Books Ltd.