Paradise Lost by Milton. Devilish good book. Now in my top ten books ever. But the hardest thing I have ever read. Sometimes you pick it up and it feels like a random assortment of words.. they sound nice, beautiful in fact…but meaning would evade me completely. Rereading helps and eventually understanding would seep in by osmosis almost. When it didn’t , I found the translation helped. This book took me AGES to read.

I have to say that Satan, the fallen angel, was spectacular. All the worlds most compelling baddies rolled into one.
He gets all the best lines.
‘Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven’
‘The mind is it’s own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven’

Lots of times I could see Emily Brontes ideas for Wuthering Heights.. sometimes as Heathcliff as a sort of Satan, sometimes with Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights being heaven and hell, sometimes in the love Adam and Eve express being so similar to Cathy and Heathcliffes expression of love.

Milton obviously enjoyed Ovid, Homer and Shakespeare, these seem to have walked into Paradise Lost and scattered their influence all over it. But more impressive is how this epic poem has had such a profound impact, ever since it’s publication, on art, music, literature, society, film, video games and …well, everything really.
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My best bits.. the truly titanic war between the goodies and baddies. The baddies make Lord of the Rings Orcs and Sauron seem like pussy cats.. and the goodies hurl mountains, real mountains. Hugely entertaining stuff.

Down side?….Last two chapters were a bit boring. It ended on a bit of a limp whimper in my uneducated opinion.