Reading Paradise Lost

Casting a fresh perspective on the greatest long poem in English, David Hopkins guides the reader through the inspiring poetic landscape of Milton’s great epic Paradise Lost, a work of literature which has compelled and fascinated readers down the ages and which offers enduring insight into the human condition

• A welcome aesthetic focus on the poetic experience of reading Paradise Lost rather than its religious or political context
• Provides a nuanced, unified vision of the poem from a celebrated authority on English poetry of the period
• Includes consideration of the poem's earlier champions and critics
• Passionately advocates Paradise Lost's continuing artistic and philosophical relevance

David Hopkins is Emeritus Professor of English Literature and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, UK. A specialist on English poetry and literary criticism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he has written two books on John Dryden – John Dryden (1986) and Writers and their Work: John Dryden (2004). His latest work, Conversing with Antiquity: English Poets and the Classics, from Shakespeare to Pope (2010), reflects his interest in the enduring influence on English poetry of the literature and culture of classical antiquity. Professor Hopkins has also edited numerous volumes, including (with Paul Hammond) an annotated edition of Dryden’s complete poems.