Teaching literature is an exercise in freedom. Now ideological demands from the right are putting it in danger.

Samuel Johnson quipped that even the admirers of John Milton’s epic never wished it “longer than it is.” But “Paradise Lost” ...

When John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost,” (1667) his Satan famously stated, “better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.” Satan was the villain of the piece, abandoning the Good and the ...

“Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n,” Satan declares in “Paradise Lost”, an epic poem by John Milton. God, by contrast, says boring things about goodness.

Nearly 30 passages that Jefferson recorded, Orlando Reade notes, derive from John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost,” including 11 that center on the figure of Satan.

Paradise Lost: The devil as an Adonis In this 1808 illustration by William Blake, entitled "Satan Arousing the Rebel Angels," Satan is depicted in human form, similar to the classical depictions ...

What in Me Is Dark: The Revolutionary Life of Paradise Lost by Orlando Reade Jonathan Cape £22, 272 pages Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café and subscribe to our podcast ...