I wish i had read this back before it was published, when i was in a better mindspace to pick it up, as i know i would've loved it then. Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me

The premise of this book is that nobody is reading Paradise Lost and that this is a terrible shame but that luckily along comes John Carey with his helpful summary and commentary. But the thing is, I actually have read Paradise Lost. I was an English undergraduate back in the day. It isn't an easy read. In fact, I remember reading it aloud to my bilingual cousins because it helped me get some of the stresses and meaning clearer in my mind. They were both younger than me and rather nonplussed. But my point is that I am not really a believer in taking the easy route. So while this is a handy study primer perhaps, I feel a little sad that someone who actually teachers Paradise Lost believes it to be necessary.

Like Carey, I, too, teach Paradise Lost to undergraduates (though for nowhere near as long as he has!) and yes, it can be a struggle to help them engage with the complications and complexities of Milton's epic narrative poem. Carey's response is to abridge Milton's 12 books down to something the length of Animal Farm.

He keeps parts of all books linked by his own summaries and commentaries. The problem with this is that Milton's great, rolling, digressive sentences can become broken up and fragmented as we switch between the poem and Carey's interventions. For example, in Book 2, we get 42 lines of Milton, Carey's summary which bridges about 100 lines, then another 6 lines of Milton before another bridging passage which covers about 40 lines, then we return to 10 lines of Milton...

It's hard, of course, but Carey's approach (and his introduction) seems to over-simplify Milton's poem. From my own experience, undergraduates don't need to be patronised or have their hands held to this extent, or their ambitions reduced or an indication that their tutors expect them not to get on with Milton (the solution in my department is to make students read 3 books of the poem in their entirety, with the hope that they'll be encouraged to read further on their own).

That said, this is a good 'version' either for A-level students taking their first steps into epic narrative poetry or for the general reader wanting a taster of Milton. I applaud Carey's attempt to get Milton back into general reading circulation (it's a wonderful poem!) but I'm not completely sure that this 'reader's digest' approach is the best way to do it. Well done, Faber, too, for an innovative publishing project.

Beautiful and more manageable than the original text.
Saying that I do think you lost something by not having all the details.
I would recommend to English students.