Paradise Lost cover art

Paradise Lost

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Paradise Lost

By: John Milton
Narrated by: Anton Lesser
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About this listen

"Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe...."

So begins the greatest epic poem in the English language. In words remarkable for their richness of rhythm and imagery, Milton tells the story of man's creation, fall, and redemption, "to justify the ways of God to men". Here, unabridged, and told with exceptional sensitivity and power by Anton Lesser, is the plight of Adam and Eve, the ambition and vengefulness of Satan and his cohorts.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2005 Naxos Audiobooks Ltd. Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature European Poetry World Literature

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A great way to engage with one of the greatest works of English literature. Lesser captures the metrical skill of Milton's poetry nicely and helps to make this lengthy, sometimes quite dense work a little more palitable.

A classic, beautifully read

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excellent narration drawing you in to an already compelling poem , I didn't want it to end !

wonderful narrator, highly recommend

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This must be the definitive reading of this work: heartfelt, passionate and moving. Nobody should go through life without having read or listened to this, the greatest of all poems in the English language.

Passionate and moving reading

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I read this after hearing Philip Pullman speak at Hay. He obviously got a lot of inspiration from it. It is the basis for so much of English Literature and it's also just a great and exciting story. I would not have been able to read it myself properly as it takes a real storyteller to bring this blank verse epic to life. Anton Lesser was the perfect choice and he is the master of spoken word. Try his Tamar too!! (Lesser not Milton obviously)

Utterly brilliant

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Paradise lost is a poem that gains greatly by being read aloud. Passages which on the printed page may seem convoluted and obscure can be made clear by a good reader, and Anton Lesser is, as always not merely a good but an outstanding reader. His voice at first may seem slight and lacking resonance but he follows the argument and pace of the narrative with great intelligence and is able to differentiate and characterise convincingly all the different voices that speak in the poem. This skill is essential, since unlike the abridged version published by Naxos some years ago, he is the sole narrator. As such he does a superb job throughout the long and varied length of this poem.
The old Argo recording of substantial portions of the epic still seems to me unmatched -with Tony Church as a superb narrator, Michael Redgrave as a splendidly theatrical Satan, Michael Hordern as a plausible God the father, Prunella scales as a movingly characterised Eve. The use of different voices is undoubtably better and more in keeping with the strong dramatic element in this epic. It is a pity that this and other Argo recordings are no longer available. But Anton Lesser as a single narrator does the job perhaps as well as it can be done (and is certainly preferable to the pedestrian version by Frederic Davidson). If you know Paradise Lost, you will find Anton Lessor's reading always clear and often illuminating.If you are approaching this marvellous poem for the first time, this reading is an ideal way to gain an overview of the whole epic.

Sonorous metal

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