Christian Jenkins's Reviews > A Preface to Paradise Lost

What a fascinating book, not merely about Paradise Lost, but about; the epic poem, hierarchies, theology, you name it - it's in there! (well almost).

Whilst the book focuses on Paradise Lost it looks at it in broader terms, in terms of the author, the time it was written, works it took inspiration from, and then Lewis bundles it all together in an easy to read format for the simpleton like me.

Ultimately I concluded it is not the right time to read Milton, but perhaps later in life, however the coverage of the epic through Homer and Virgil means I wish to read those again first before delving further into Paradise Lost.

"For though the human heart is not unchanging (nay, changes almost out of recognition in the twinkling of an eye) the laws of causation are. When poisons become fashionable they do not cease to kill."p.57 (I thought this was very apt for our times).

"Now if once the conception of Hierarchy is fully grasped, we see that order can be destroyed in two ways: (1) By ruling or obeying natural equals, that is by Tyranny or Servility. (2) By failing to obey a natural superior or to rule a natural inferior - that is, by Rebellion or Remissness." p.76

"In the religious life man faces God and God faces man. But in the epic it is feigned, for the moment, that we, as readers, can step aside and see the faces both of God and man in profile. We are not invited to enjoy the spiritual life, but to contemplate the whole pattern within which the spiritual life arises." p.132