Paradise Lost

Been meaning to read Paradise Lost for a while now, is there an edition generally preferred?

Longman Annotated tbhwy famalam

Shortwoman Unannotated tbhwy famalam.

I have the penguin version, which is fine and has a pretty cool cover (which is the most important thing lets face it)

Longman. Insanely detailed and voluminous footnotes. Get a copy from eBay or AbeBooks or something.

If you're an atheist you probably won't like it.

>tfw years of shilling longman on Veeky Forums has paid off and now other people are shilling

its a good feel.

Don't listen to this user. It's an incredibly moving and compelling narrative, whether or not you're a believer

>t. Athiest

>tfw alastair fowler has probably forgotten more about paradise lost than you'll learn about any topic in your life ever

I am interested in reading it, but I've never read the Bible.
Is it mandatory to have read at least a part of it?

what an idiotic statement

the romantics loved it

>literally 2-4 lines a page because it's so constipated with notes

nope

if you need footnotes for this you're retarded

just buy any version with the illustrations

meh, the story of Adam and Eve is described only briefly in Genesis, you could read those few chapters though, wouldnt hurt.

The Annotated Milton by Burton Raffel.

Paradise Lost is in there along with everything else by Milton.

You don't need anything else, fuck what the others say. Get this, and you will be good.

...

No. You should have picked up enough just by living in a historically Christian country to understand what's going on. I'm assuming you're a septic

Not the person you replied to, but I'm from Denmark, and it's of course a historically Christian country, but literally no one is religious, and you won't get it from anywhere ... at all. Maybe only slightly in school for one hour a week, for a few years at best, leaving absolutely no impact. Christianity is historical and ancient here, not actual in any way. The only thing that reminds us of our past is the many churches permeating the landscape. That's it. Ask any kid here whether they can quote a single verse from the bible. I bet you that 95% has never opened it ever, except maybe when being confirmated, which no one does for religious reasons anyways. No one cares about religion. They might not readily say that they are atheists (about 40% of the population in my estimation would, however), but that's what they are, and they sure as hell are not concerned about religion.

We won't know anything about it here if we don't have an interest in it beforehand. In Russia or Ukraine it might be different, because of a different religious history and tradition, but in Northern Europe you cannot expect anyone to know much about Christianity and religion in general, because it is so irrelevant here. I'm interested in Milton however, but I'm an atheist through and through like everyone else. Very few even know who Milton is. I'm 19, and I guarantee no one my age knows who he is.

Good luck finding a Christian Dane, Swede or Norwegian under the age of 30. You won't find one.

Yep ,similar in the UK. We're obviously less civilised than you but religion here is non-existant - like, I don't think I'ver met anyone (non-immigrant) who would call themselves a Christian. And we have an established state Church. Its just no in anybodys life.

Exactly mate. If the trend countinues, I think we would see the death of even ceremonial Christianity within 50 years. The right wing will rise naturally to stop the Muslims, but that right wing will not be religious, because they will have no public support. I think that Scandinavia in general will be the first countries to confine religion to the coffers of history, and not through state atheism.

Does Brazil counts as "historically Christian"?
Nevertheless, I will take a look at the beginning of Genesis and delve into it.

Thanks for the replies.

if English isnt your first language Paradise Lost is gonna be rough. The language is harder to read than Shakespeare, and if you don't have a genuine interest in the Bible I doubt you'll finish it.