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A poet who crafted the
greatest character in literary history with his engaging anti-hero of Satan, John Milton connected personal experience with the breadth of cosmic epic. His
Paradise Lost is a touchstone of English literature.
In the latest entry in Ig's celebrated Bookmarked series, author Ed Simon considers
Paradise Lost within the scope of his own alcoholism and recovery, the collapse of higher education, the imbecility of
the canon wars, the piquant joys of labyrinthine sentences, and the exquisite
attractions of Lucifer. Milton is easy to respect and easier to fear, but with
the guidance of Simon, Milton becomes easiest of all to love.
Paradise Lost may
have generated thousands of works of criticism over the centuries, but none of
them are like this.
About the author
Ed Simon is the editor of
Belt Magazine and a staff writer for The Millions. A widely published author, his work has appeared in
The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, Poetry, McSweeney's, Aeon, Lapham's Quarterly,
The Washington Post and
The New York Times, among dozens of others. Simon is also the author of several books, including
Printed in Utopia: The Radicalism of the Renaissance and
Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology. He has taught literature at several institutions of higher education, and holds a PhD in English from Lehigh University. Simon is from Pittsburgh, where he still lives.
