John Milton

Paradise Lost is Milton's central work because it retells the Fall of Man in a 1667 English epic built around Satan, Adam, Eve, and God. The first edition had 10 books, and Milton revised it into 12 books in 1674.

Yes. Milton was blind by the time Paradise Lost was composed, and he dictated the poem to assistants and family members rather than writing it by hand.

The poem treats obedience, free will, temptation, and divine justice through a Protestant biblical framework. Milton had also written major political and religious prose, including Areopagitica in 1644.

Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, both published in 1671, are the natural next Milton texts. They show the later Milton working in shorter forms after the huge scale of Paradise Lost.