MAGIC. LOVE. LOVE.

The most interesting parts of this book for me were the parts describing the Garden, and Adam and Eve before and during the fall. The last two books, where Adam is shown what's to come for humanity, are less interesting and kind of obnoxious.
I like Milton's interpretations of the fall. They make God seem awfully petty. The Garden is described as so wonderful, and to be kicked out of it is the most horrible thing. Punishment seems way out of proportion of the crime.

Typically, I get half way through this, abandon it for months, perpetuate my inertia by assuming it'll take too much of me to get back into it, then spontaneously remove it from my shelf one morning and whack out the remaining half in less than a day. Of course it was amazing; I shouldn't need to even allude to that. I was left somewhat distraught, though: Milton's writing is so alive, so fiery, when it is about Satan, and Adam and Eve's pain, and the terror of their love and, thieving my opinion from Blake, the discrepancy between that magnificence and the flatness, the falsity, of the sections concerning heavenly beings left me feeling as though I'd been denied something yet more fantastic. I feel peevish attacking Milton for not being consistently breathtaking - it should be enough just to have written the chapters of disarming amazingness that he has done - but still, I feel the God bits were written out of obligation, and as such are unspeakably crude. They disappoint and frustrate me; they turn even beautiful language into a grey mass of ... nothing, really. It sounds a false dichotomy even to read it back to myself, even hours after feeling that disappointment, but it's true, I know it. Anyway, that's why this gets a four: for being superb only inconsistently; for causing me pain that I abhorred as well as pain that I welcomed. I will read it to my children, but not in its entirety.

Reading this book, I'm of the devil's party and I know it. I think I'm with Empson on this one... I would be more certain of it if his book, 'Milton's God', didn't cost £815.00! Yes, I felt that deserved an exclamation mark.

Typically, I get half way through this, abandon it for months, perpetuate my inertia by assuming it'll take too much of me to get back into it, then spontaneously remove it from my shelf one morning and whack out the remaining half in less than a day. Of course it was amazing; I shouldn't need to even allude to that. I was left somewhat distraught, though: Milton's writing is so alive, so fiery, when it is about Satan, and Adam and Eve's pain, and the terror of their love and, thieving my opinion from Blake, the discrepancy between that magnificence and the flatness, the falsity, of the sections concerning heavenly beings left me feeling as though I'd been denied something yet more fantastic. I feel peevish attacking Milton for not being consistently breathtaking - it should be enough just to have written the chapters of disarming amazingness that he has done - but still, I feel the God bits were written out of obligation, and as such are unspeakably crude. They disappoint and frustrate me; they turn even beautiful language into a grey mass of ... nothing, really. It sounds a false dichotomy even to read it back to myself, even hours after feeling that disappointment, but it's true, I know it. Anyway, that's why this gets a four: for being superb only inconsistently; for causing me pain that I abhorred as well as pain that I welcomed. I will read it to my children, but not in its entirety.

BLURB

"The Iliad is the culmination of a long-standing oral tradition. The oral technique enabled a master bard like Homer to develop what may historically have been an event of minor importance into a fully fledged epic. So, out of a single episode in the legendary Trojan War - Achilles' withdrawal from the fighting and return to kill the Trojan hero, Hector - Homer generated the twenty-four books of The Iliad.

"What the oral technique does not automatically provide, however, is the genius of the poem which is rendered here so elegantly and clearly in E.V.Rieu's acclaimed translation. Homer has created a timeless, dramatic tragedy. His characters are heroic but their passions and problems are human and universal, and he presents them with compassion, understanding and humour against the harsh background of the war and the quarrels of the gods."

REVIEW

What can I say about this poem that has not already been said? I want to whisper it to myself every day for the rest of my life.

What can I say about this poem that has not already been said? I want to whisper it to myself every day for the rest of my life.