 | | Christ the Redeemer - a William Blake rendition of a scene from John Milton's Paradise Lost. |
“OF ALL the poems which have hitherto appeared in
the world, in whatever age or nation, the preference has generally been
given by impartial judges to Milton’s Paradise
Lost. But this inimitable work, amidst all its
beauties, is unintelligible to [an] abundance of readers.”
So declared John Wesley in 1763. Dennis Danielson
agrees with that assessment – and accordingly, is offering the
reading public a refurbished version of John Milton’s 1668 epic.
Danielson is head of the English Department at UBC, a
member of the Regent College board of governors and author of The Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from
Heraclitus to Hawking.
He came to his new task with authority, having already
written Milton’s Good God: A Study in
Literary Theodicy, and edited The Cambridge Companion to Milton.
In honour of the poet’s 400th birthday, Regent
College Publishing has just released Danielson’s Paradise Lost: Parallel Prose Edition,
with the text paraphrased in contemporary English .
The publisher states that Milton’s classic
“has long been hailed as one of the most compelling stories of all
time. Its cosmic canvas – heaven, hell, chaos and the Garden of
Eden – has enthralled thousands of readers for more than three
centuries.
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“For others, however, it has remained an unopened
treasure because of the perceived difficulty of its archaic vocabulary and
poetic structure.”
Danielson’s modern rendition is presented beside
Milton’s original text. His intent, he has noted, is to do for Milton
what Eugene Peterson did for the Bible with The
Message.
– DFD
December 2008
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