What in Me Is Dark is a dynamic reappraisal of Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, exploring its radical origins and revolutionary impact on our culture. It features twelve unexpected readers who have shaped our world, and offers a new account of its radical, ever-evolving legacy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 14 November 2024
Publisher: Vintage Publishing

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

A dynamic reappraisal of Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost"

A remarkable feat

OBSERVER

Clever, wide-ranging... witty and sardonic

NEW STATESMAN

Paradise Lost might be the most influential poem written in English. For three and a half centuries, readers across the world – especially those seeking revolutions in their own time – have found inspiration in its visions of freedom. In return, they have given Milton's epic new life.

Drawing on his own experiences of teaching literature in prisons, Orlando Reade focuses on twelve unexpected readers – from Malcolm X to Virginia Woolf, Hannah Arendt to Thomas Jefferson – whose lives and works have shaped our world. He shows the many different, surprising and often contradictory ways in which Milton's poem has been read across centuries and continents.

Boldly original, lively and far-reaching, "What in Me Is Dark" is the story of how a work of literature born in the ashes of a failed revolution became an indelible part of the modern imagination. Reade guides us through the epic, exploring how Milton came to write its dark and dazzling poetry, and offering a new account of its radical, ever-evolving legacy.

Weight: 470g
Dimension: 240 x 160 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787334878