We’ve all heard about the classics and assume they’re

Milton’s “Paradise Lost”

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Preliminary Considerations 

Format

. Paradise Lost is sufficiently different from other classics covered in 

this series that it has required modifications in format. Milton’s epic is divided 

into twelve books, but these are not accompanied by titles the way chapters in a 

novel are usually given a title at the beginning of each chapter. In keeping with 

Milton’s design, this guide does not supply titles for the books of Paradise Lost.

Second, the twelve books of Paradise Lost are longer and more complex 

than (for example) the twenty-four books of The Odyssey or the twenty-four 

chapters of The Scarlet Letter. As a result, there is too much material in the indi-

vidual books of Paradise Lost to allow for the simple format of plot summary, 

commentary, and reflection/discussion applied to an entire book of Paradise 

Lost. This guide retains the standard format of an opening unit of plot summary 

for the entire book that follows, but after that the material is divided into a series 

of individual units, arranged sequentially according to how the book unfolds 

from beginning to end. Each of these units has the customary section of com-

mentary followed by a section of reflection and discussion.