Paradise Regained

by John Milton

In purely poetic value, Paradise Regained is little inferior to its predecessor. There may be nothing in the poem that can quite touch the first two books of Paradise Lost for magnificence; but there are several things that may fairly be set beside almost anything in the last ten. The splendid "stand at bay" of the discovered tempter -- "'Tis true I am that spirit unfortunate" -- in the first book; his rebuke of Belial in the second, and the picture of the magic banquet (it must be remembered that, though it is customary to extol Milton's asceticism, the story of his remark to his third wife, and the Lawrence and Skinner sonnets, go the other way); above all, the panoramas from the mountaintop in the third and fourth; the terrors of the night of storm; the crisis on the pinnacle of the temple -- are quite of the best Milton, which is equivalent to saying that they are of the best of one kind of poetry.

-- The Cambridge History of English and American Literature

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Religion, Literature, Fantasy, Philosophy

108 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1671

About the author

People best know John Milton, English scholar, for Paradise Lost , the epic poem of 1667 and an account of fall of humanity from grace.

Beelzebub, one fallen angel in Paradise Lost, of John Milton, lay in power next to Satan.

Belial, one fallen angel, rebelled against God in Paradise Lost of John Milton.


John Milton, polemicist, man of letters, served the civil Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote in blank verse at a time of religious flux and political upheaval.

Prose of John Milton reflects deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. He wrote in Latin, Greek, and Italian and achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644) in condemnation of censorship before publication among most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and the press of history.

William Hayley in biography of 1796 called and generally regarded John Milton, the "greatest ... author," "as one of the preeminent writers in the ... language," though since his death, critical reception oscillated often on his republicanism in the centuries. Samuel Johnson praised, "with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the ... mind," though he, a Tory and recipient of royal patronage, described politics of Milton, an "acrimonious and surly republican."

Because of his republicanism, centuries of British partisanship subjected John Milton.

Reviews

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Jesus were an accountant:

Boss: Have that PowerPoint ready by Wednesday 3 pm.

Jesus: My time has not yet come.

Boss: I am asking for this. Wednesday. 3 pm.

Jesus: That would require a miracle.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $7.49 from The Classic Book Shop in Royal Oak
Audiobook – Free through Audible

Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango

[Diamond Cowboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an other master piece of epic poetry by John Milton. This is refreshingly possative after reading Paradise Lost by the same author/poet.
I recommend this book to all.

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ought to be read after Paradise Lost, naturally. Milton was a magician with the English language but delving into his 400 year old work demands concentration, persistence and patience.

[booksofthedead]

Paradise Regained, while not at the same level of rhetoric and literacy as Paradise Lost, does offer an interesting insight into Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Milton uses language in order to assert Jesus as the Messiah, and Satan as an agent of evil, which is being used by God, to help that assertion. Paradise Regained is largely static. There is no real rise and fall of tension and there is no real climax, either. Rather, all of the stress is placed on the importance of language and silence.

When comparing Satan and Jesus' speeches, there is an immediate difference: Satan's speech is clouded in "persuasive rhetoric," whereas everything that Jesus says is plain and accessible. Jesus does not need fancy language in order to convey His message. Instead of trying to make Himself more confusing, the Messiah takes language back to its roots and uses it as Adam did (in a way that would be able to communicate with God directly) by keeping it as simple and as close to God as He can.

In his brilliant essay, "The Muting of Satan: Language and Redemption in Paradise Regained," Steven Goldsmith argues that the language Jesus is using is not the same as the language Satan is using. Rather than stay silent while Satan tempts Him, Jesus uses the fallen language in order to thwart Satan and beat him at his own game. In the process of using this language, Jesus is paving His way towards becoming the Messiah by silencing Satan so that His voice will be heard. Underneath all of Satan's fancy word plays lays absolutely nothing. He is the "linguistic anti-christ," who "has nothing to express."

Jesus finally asserts Himself as Messiah and readies Himself to be "all in all" with God towards the end of the poem:

"To whom thus Jesus: Also it is written,
Tempt not the Lord they God, he said and stood.
But Satan smitten with amazement fell."

At first glance, it is easy to see that Jesus and Satan are opposites: one is standing and the other is falling. However, the fact that Jesus "said and stood" is important. It parallels God's perfect speech during the creation of the world: "God said... and there was." This is the pinnacle of the poem - the point where Christ has officially triumphed over Satan and can now go public as Messiah. Satan is allowed to roam the fallen world and has even created a kingdom of his own in Hell and in the sky (according to Milton) where he perversely "blesses" people with wealth, glory, etc. Jesus has to enter the fallen world and first silence its biggest voice before He can redeem it.

"Queller of Satan, on thy glorious work
Now enter, and begin to save mankind."

According to Goldsmith, "the process of verification that is the purpose of Paradise Regained has been accomplished." By using language, Milton paralleled Jesus' own entrance into the world as Messiah by silencing Satan and glorifying Christ.

While I still believe this is not nearly as fascinating as Paradise Lost (and is also much shorter), it's still well worth the read if you've read the former. They really are two parts of a whole. Satan's temptation of Christ not only mimics his temptation of Eve, but it is also referenced throughout the entire poem whenever he feels foiled. This is the finale to Paradise Lost.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can I say this poem is the theological equivalent of Rocky 2 without being profane? First off, I liked Rocky 2. It was exciting and triumphant, as opposed to the original which was cerebral and bitter-sweet. After the classic original, there is some merit in a follow-up piece that lets the good guy finally deliver that knock-out punch we’ve hungered for. Such is Milton’s Paradise Regained.

There are some great moments in this piece, which centers on Jesus Christ’s 40 days fasting in the wilderness, and the subsequent temptation/testing by Lucifer. Milton effectively expands the concise New Testament account, making it epic without sacrificing any thematic clarity. The title says it all. On the flip side, this work indulges in listing, a poetic practice where literary references are literally listed in rapid succession without any attempt at exploring them in depth. It doesn’t make for great story-telling, even as it testifies to Milton’s great mind.

Once again Satan proves himself to be the subtle and crafty foe of Paradise Lost, at least early on. By the 15th round…I mean Book Four…he’s getting his intellectual butt kicked by the Son of Man. Some of Christ’s rebukes are real zingers, and they made for engaging reading. Notwithstanding, I find myself in league with the large body of scholars who consider this a lesser work. Still, if you’ve read and enjoyed Paradise Lost, don’t miss the feel-good sequel.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A shorter sequel to Paradise Lost dealing with Jesus Christ’s time in the desert being tempted by the Adversary. Pretty much everything I said about the first book applies to this one too, so I won’t repeat myself here. Link to my Paradise Lost review

My next book: Marvel Masterworks: Ghost Rider vol. 2

[Мартин Касабов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Страхотно издание, но озадачаващо решение. Ако днес читателят пожелае да се запознае с по-значимата творба на Милтън „Изгубеният рай“, няма да я открие по книжарниците.

[Robyn Blaber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike Paradise Lost, we find Milton returning with characters far less interesting in this new Christian era. Satan, once a driven and quixotic hero is reduced to the likes of a very ineffectual tempter. Given that Satan and Jesus might have spent time together for eons before there was man, perhaps he'd know a little more about how to tempt him. Milton did use poetic license, in all but the lame temptations.

"Hey Jesus, you're an immortal being and pretty much omnipotent... remember that time you were in "God mode" on the battlefield and beat the crap out of all of my minions? Well anyway, would you like some toast? Can I tempt you with a little toast?"

Well of course we all know what Jesus has to say about that. Satan doesn't come up with a single other thing. It's a shame. In Pardise Lost we completely understand his motivation for being underground, "Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." He doesn't seem to manage to explain any of this to Jesus, however, strong as a premise it might have been. Satan convinced a full third of the angels to rebel against God and hadn't the guile to feed his old cloud-mate some toast.

Here Satan not only fails to guile Jesus, but the reader as well. Jesus is a brick wall and Satan plays tennis against it. The result is inevitable... and boring. As a metaphor for Christianity as a whole, it's easy to see why Christians need Satan. Salvation and eternal life are just far too uninteresting. Give us a purpose. Give us a boogeyman to fear and resist and keep our sinful lives... if not pointless, interesting.

[mary liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for an English class this semester and actually wrote a paper on it. Rather interesting, though I admit that Milton isn't exactly My Thing. I enjoyed it for the most part, though, and it produced a lot of stimulating discussions in my class.

3 stars

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paradise Regained tells the story of Christ's triumph over Satan's temptations, as per the Gospel of Luke, and the debates between Satan and Christ read like a tennis match, or better yet a presidential debate. While Milton always gives Christ the upper hand, with narration in between the dialogue such as "our Savior answer'd thus unmov'd", "here again/Satan had not to answer, but stood struck/With guilt of his own sin" and "Satan now/Quite at a loss, for all his darts were spent", there is no doubt that Satan is a master rhetorician. And some of his arguments are so persuasive that although Milton awards the point to Christ, we as readers (at least such was the case for me) think the author at times a bit of a biased referee.

Most interesting of all to me was Christ's misanthropic outlook, which seems very antithetical to the modern humanist Christ: "[W]hat the people but a herd confus'd,/A miscellaneous rabble, who extol/Things vulgar, and well weigh'd, scarce worth the praise?/They praise and they admire they know not what;/And know not whom, but as one leads the other;/And what delight to be by such extoll'd . . ." He sounds much more like Walter Lippmann there than Gandhi.

Much shorter in length and not as rich as Paradise Lost, the work is still impressive, the conversations between Christ and the ever-wily Satan being the highlight of the work, which like its predecessor draws on the Bible as well as Greek mythology and history which was all familiar terrain to Milton's readers. While we may have doubts about Christ being more skilled at debate than his Tempter, he certainly is very capable of seeing through Satan's lies and deceptions, in the end Satan finding him (no surprise) an "over-match." He tricked Eve easily enough, but "Eve was Eve" (misogynistic as that line may be, she being painted as not just mortal but, being female, weaker willed than Adam) and conversely Christ is Christ, and while Satan and Man alike are also sons of God, Satan learns that Christ, immovable (not unlike Job), is "In some respect far higher so declar'd."

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s not surprising to call Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained timeless or eternally-relevant. I did not expect, however, the ways in which the second poem works in 2021.
We live in a golden age for polemicizing. There is an unimaginable wealth of content available online for arguing and debating any position on any subject one could desire. There are whole enclaves of web communities and celebrities exposing and dunking on a vague set of politics the communities are organized in opposition to. “Master debate winner” is a personality template for many, many online teenagers. Since these all exist online, they often don’t have much in the way of real-world stakes (or at least are unimpactful upon the material struggles they reference), so you can basically just find whatever positions you support confirmed and defended, without worrying that your side will ever decisively lose or move on to something else.

Christ’s temptation in the desert is my favorite story in the New Testament. It’s very quick, but loaded with subtext. Milton brings out allllll that subtext, not in any dry and pious exposition but in firey and rapid arguments. It’s a lot more dialogue-heavy than Paradise Lost—almost all the lines seem to be dialogue—and the dunks and one-liners fly fast and furiously. Satan brags to demons about his cunning rhetoric, Belial brags about his past skill in corrupting pious men, Satan owns Belial, Christ owns Satan, etc. The stakes are transparent: Satan is lord of the Earth, and his power must be broken now and Paradise must be regained. In this way, Jesus, as a human, also “fulfills” the responsibility that Adam abandoned. Like before, the puritan Milton fills Satan with arguments that would work on him—at times Jesus sounds positively liberal in contrast! When moving to characters besides Christ and Satan, it is to articulate their beliefs and desires in a way which would appear to reinforce Satan’s arguments. Christ resists him nonetheless.

[sch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book I is engaging, Books II and III have their moments, but the conclusion of Book IV is fantastic.

Uses Luke's account of the Temptation, not Matthew's. Luke's sequence has always puzzled me; Milton (perhaps learning from Spenser's Redcrosse Knight, whose final enemy before recuperating in the House of Holiness is Despair) makes the final temptation an act of desperation on Satan's part. Tortured by ignorance of Jesus' mission and nature, and perhaps confused by the distinction Jesus draws in Luke 4:8, Satan again begs proof of divinity, echoing the first temptation ("If you are the Son of God..."). "I to thy Fathers house Have brought thee, and highest plac't, highest is best, Now shew thy Progeny" (IV.552-4). When Jesus refuses, "Satan smitten with amazement fell" (my italics).

[Miloš · Rating 2 out of 5]

dok je u izgubljenom raju Satana Satana, u raju ponovo stečenom Satana je karikatura od Satane, kao detence Satanino, čija uloga nije druga do samo ta, da služi žongleru Isusu da se sa njim posprdava.

[Ryle]

WE MAKING IT OUTTA THE FALLEN CREATION WITH THIS ONE

[Dmytro Zozulia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Як це часто буває з франшизами, продовження вийшло слабшим, ніж перша частина. Але для контексту прочитати варто.

[Nemo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Milton recounts and reinterprets the Biblical story of Satan Tempting Christ in Paradise Regained, in which he lays open to criticism and derision the whole of human existence and history. There is a distinct undertone of defiance and bitterness. In the poem, Christ is represented, not so much as the only begotten Son of God, but a heroic moral figure, who triumphs over Satan, not by His Godliness, but by ethical and philosophical polemics, the very thing Milton criticizes.

In attempting to “justify the ways of God to men”, Milton fails to do justice to either.

(Read full review with illustrations at Nemo’s Library )

[Garrett Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Milton's sequel to Paradise Lost was meant to be the happy conclusion after the tragic end of the predecessor, but it seems unnecessary in the wake of Michael's explanation of Christ's triumphant defeat of sin and death to Adam at the end of PL. The poem only suffers in comparison to its much more sprawling and immersive predecessor, but is still an excellent achievement that is as well written as you would hope.

[Laurel Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milton's epic about the temptation of Christ in the wilderness is certainly easier to take in in one gasp than is his larger and better epic. (I read it all yesterday. I have been known to read Paradise Lost in a single day, but it was no easy task.) I was especially interested in Milton's take in Paradise Regained on the Genesis 6:1 reference to the sons of God who married the daughters of men. He makes the sons of God be the fallen angels=pagan gods who used human women as they willed in the mythologies.

[Maan Kawas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful poem, which is a sequel to Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost”, with focus on with the temptation of Christ as mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. Although it is a beautiful work, it is not as powerful as “Paradise Lost”, and with less drama and more philosophical dimension. I loved the poem and especially the idea that the man who rules over his own passions is to some extent similar to a king.

[Raymond Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as Paradise Lost, but still beautifully written. Temptation is defeated; but this is not actually the tale of Christ conquering sin and death, merely temptation and the devil in the wilderness.

[Isabella · Rating 2 out of 5]

satan loses all his complexity as a character, and jesus is one-sided and self-righteous.

[Muchomorek ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Paradise Lost contained all the ingredients you'd expect from a great epic poem - an excellent (anti)hero, multiple perspectives, high stakes, and some fantastic lines - this sequel falls rather flat in my opinion.

After a multitude of characters from Heaven and Hell, the reader follows practically only two characters in this sequel: Satan and Jesus. The whole poem is summed up in their discussion, in which Satan tries to influence Jesus, who always responds with counter-arguments. It feels a bit like a ping-pong match, with the two characters passing the ball back and forth. The ending is not surprising, and the two characters seem rather two-dimensional compared to what they showed in Paradise Lost.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend Paradise Regained to the casual reader, but it's a quick read, and it's still Milton, so there are still some great lines.

[Salem ⛤⃝ · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king."

Paradise Lost is probably one of my favorite epics of all time, and I actually had no idea it had a second part. I learned about this continuation from a Jeopardy answer. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me & just didn't have the flare I found in Paradise Lost.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have used more morally gray bad boys

[Reehan Miah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlike the dense, convoluted behemoth that is Paradise Lost, Milton's follow-up Paradise Regained is relatively brief and straightforward. Sadly, there appears to have been a brevity of thought in terms of the poet's characterisations here as well. Satan - so bewitching in the earlier epic - is a tempter vitiated, his chicanery devoid of the allure and charisma that defined him before. Christ, meanwhile, must be one of the most banal characters ever committed to the page: wholly pure, unswerving in his allegiance to God, and a gross moraliser to boot. The fact that Paradise Regained is effectively a dialectic squabble between this pair means that the poem is robbed of all drama; Jesus's refusal to even contemplate straying from his path paralyizing Satan's 'temptation' before it's even under way. Milton's work thus reads as a hastily-scribed apologetic for its more complex and compelling predecessor, designed solely to excoriate man once again (But why should man seek glory? who of his own / Hath nothing, and to whom nothing belongs / But condemnation, ignominy, and shame?) whilst dubiously shoring up the conservative deification of a figure who, based on this text, isn't remotely worthy of interest.

[teddyreadingstuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely. Does a fantastic job showing Jesus as the "new Adam," who resists temptation and in doing so brings life where Adam's sin brought death.

...aaannd it's Milton, so the English language has never sounded so eloquent or wonderful.

[Ben Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The follow up to Paradise Lost---which ended up being impactful for me last year. This is far shorter, and easier to follow, yet still packed with beautiful verse from Milton. One of my favorite lines, spoken by Jesus to Satan: "Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace, that who advances His glory, not their own, them He Himself to glory will advance."

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The classic Christian poem about the salvation of man being restored by Jesus. An epic Protestant poem sure to infuriate any Talmudist that sees it.

[verybookishofyou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like really enjoyed this?? and I don’t know why it was so poorly received??? I think everyone enjoying seeing Satan succeed more than Christ is really not John’s problem 🤷‍♀️

[Jacky Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically redemption comes from resisting sin, meditating, and waiting for God to do his magic. It's all inward, and so we have a mini-epic radically stylistically scaled down, highly dialogic and meditative, but also very, very boring!