Paradise Lost: A Poem in Twelve Books

London: Printed for Richard Bently in Convent-garden, and Jacob Tonson in Chancery-lane near Fleet Street, 1691. The Fifth Edition, Adorn'd with Sculptures. Leather Bound. Good. 336pp. Tall skinny quarto [36 cm] Brown leather with decorative blind stamped borders on the boards. Rebacked. Restoration work to the joints, board edges, and corners. 4" crack in front board, at the head along the joint. Hinges reinforced. Lacking preliminary and final leaves. Inside margins of pp. 2 and 3 reinforced. First plate backed with paper. Several discreet paper repairs backing closed tears to several illustrated plates. Short tape repair to p. 290. Small loss to p. 113/14. Dark stains to several pages. Plate at p. 317 partially detached. Missing pp. 193/94. Pp. 195/96 are misnumbered (this misnumbered page, designated as 200/201 has been restored). Engraved portrait frontis plus 12 illustrated plates. In a custom clamshell with a small stain along the fore-edge of the front side panel. John Milton's epic poem on the fight between God and his fallen angel, Satan. A penetrating contemplation on fate, freewill, and divinity. Milton's work was originally issued in ten books in 1667, with books 7 and 10 issued in two parts. The second edition was published in 1674 in twelve books. The central characters in the poem are God, Satan, Adam, and Eve. Many studies have been written about Milton's passionate and sympathetic portrayal of Satan. Romantic poets William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley viewed Satan as the real hero of the poem and praised his revolt against the tyranny of Heaven.

A fifth edition of a work many scholars view as one of the greatest poems in the English language, and a work which has inspired numerous works of art. (Inventory #: 68841)