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Saturday
Dec132008

Caffeinated Milton

NPR ran a piece on Milton's 400th the other day. William Kerrigan, the editor of the Modern Library's Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton talked about the best way to read Milton's Paradise Lost:

Kerrigan says the best way to read Paradise Lost is in a single sitting, as he did when he was in graduate school.

He set aside 24 hours, loaded up on coffee and snacks, and read the entire manuscript, ending with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden. By the time he got to the final line — "They hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, / Through Eden took their solitary way" — he had tears streaming down his face.

I'm tempted to do that one of these days over break.  I wonder how many hours it would take to read all of it. 

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