paradise lost reflects great credit _ John milton
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John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost was first published in 1667. This copy was printed in 1668, with an adapted title page.
In this ‘advent’rous’ poem (1.13), Milton announces his ambition to ‘justify the ways of God to men’ (1.26). The first book starts with Satan, who has been banished to Hell after his revolt against God. The poem goes on to explore God’s creation of humankind, the temptation of Adam and Eve in Eden, and the concept of sin.
Milton faces two major difficulties in the story. Having created Satan as a dynamic and not unattractive villain, he has to find a way of debasing him. Secondly, he has to reconcile Adam’s free will with the idea of predestination, seen as God’s foreknowledge of future events. He does this by proposing that humankind has free will, but that God, having set the framework of the Creation in motion, does not control events, though He is aware of the outcome in advance.
In this edition, the poem is divided into ten books, but Milton reworked it as 12 books in 1674 following the model of Virgil’s Aeneid.