Paradise Lost

Penguin Classics

By: John Milton, John Leonard

Narrated by: Adrian Schiller

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Adrian Schiller.

In Paradise Lost Milton produced poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and briefly in danger of execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men', or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.

©2003 John Leonard (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Amazing!

Such an amazing and unique epic poem! Audible did a great job with marking the Books and Arguments which was very helpful! Highly recommend!

This narrator is……….

Words can’t describe the way I was transfixed by this work and narrator. Being a southern male not college educated, had a hard time understanding fully at first. I hung in there and adapted and did not want to stop listening. It’s no wonder this is a classic it gives voice and perspective to things you’ve been curious about if you have any religious leanings. Just remember it’s fiction. Love it. Contender for favorite audiobook of all time.

Subtle voice changes help with understanding

This version of Milton's epic uses the 1667 version of the text. I was following along with my Norton Critical Edition and the text matched perfectly. Note that the final 1.5 hrs of the audiobook is an introduction by John Leonard. Adrien Schiller subtly gives each character a voice, which helps the reader know where the narrator is speaking vs. a character is monologuing. The text doesn't use " " to denote speech unless a character is quoting another, so the voice shifts are key to understanding.

However, I could not give this a full 5 stars for performance because after book five, there are clear insertions of words that Schiller either skipped or mispronounced. The audio will sound completely different one word at a time, about once every two pages. Sometimes an entire line is dubbed over. If you are easily distracted, or planning on not following along with a text version, this might become a problem for you.

Overall, this audiobook transformed an arduous text into an enjoyable one for my religious studies.