John Milton wrote the epic poem Paradise Lost. Ten volumes and more than 10,000 lines of poem make up the original edition, which was published in 1667. In 1674, a second version was published, this time divided into 12 volumes in the style of Virgil's Aeneid. It is regarded as Milton's finest work. Satan and his army of fallen angels are imprisoned on the boiling lake of hell.
From the lake, Satan and his lieutenant Beelzebub emerge, yelling for the others to follow. As the army of rebel angels stands to attention, tortured and defeated but loyal to their leader, music plays and flags flutter. Satan convenes a council there to deliberate their line of action after they construct a huge, horrible temple on top of a volcano.
The fallen angels make many recommendations. Finally, Beelzebub advises that they move the conflict to the earth, a rumored new planet where God is said to have created a new species known as man. Although man is God's preferred creation, he is not as strong as angels. Beelzebub advises them to entice man to their perverted side in order to get vengeance on God.
Satan offers to to personally go to this new location and learn more about man in order to corrupt him. His slain army agrees unanimously by clanging their swords. With Sin, his evil daughter, and Death, their terrible son, as his guardians, Satan departs for the gates of hell. Knowing that she would accompany her creator and rule with him in whatever country he conquers, Sin consents to unlock the gates for him.
After passing through confusion, Satan eventually makes his way to earth, where he is attached to heaven by a golden chain. God sees it all and tells his son about Satan's travels. God warns his son that Satan would certainly defile his favorite creation, man.
In order to reintegrate man into God's favor and light, his son volunteers to suffer a deadly death. God concurs and describes the virgin birth of his son. Then, as the joint son of God and man, God makes his son the ruler of mankind. Meanwhile, Satan impersonates a dashing cherub to get past the angel Uriel who is watching over earth. The garden of Eden is pointed out to Satan by Uriel, who is moved that an angel would go from heaven to see God's creation.
Satan enters the garden and is astounded. by both the beauty of Eden and the attractive pair Adam and Eve. He laments his fall from grace for a little period of time, but this emotion quickly transforms into hate. Uriel, on the other hand, has come to the realization that Satan has duped him, and he informs the angel Gabriel. In the garden, Gabriel confronts Satan and casts him out.
God sends Raphael to warn Adam and Eve about Satan after seeing how things are developing. Adam and Eve invite Raphael to supper in the garden when he descends. He describes the war that followed Satan's fall from heaven while he is there. Satan's first transgression was pride when he objected to the need that he submit to the sun. One of the most powerful angels in heaven, Satan, could not comprehend the need to submit.
In a council, Satan persuaded many of the inferior angels to join him in opposing God. Satan's armies and God's troops engaged in a titanic, cosmic three-day combat. The army headed by the archangels Michael and Gabriel routed Satan's armies on the first day. On the second day, Satan seemed to advance by building weaponry, or more specifically, cannons, and directing them against the troops of good.
However, on the third day, the sun fought against Satan's army alone, and they fled, slipping through a rip in heaven's fabric and tumbling to hell. Raphael adds that this is why God made man, to fill the void that the fallen angels have left in paradise. Raphael then describes how God created the cosmos and man in seven days. Adam can recall both the time of his creation and the circumstances surrounding his request for Eve. Raphael departs.
Eve insists on working independently from Adam the next morning. When she is working alone, Satan, in the appearance of a snake, approaches her and begins to flatter her. Satan demonstrates the tree of knowledge to Eve when she inquires about his language training. Even though Eve is aware that this is the one tree that God forbade him from eating from, Satan tells her that this is simply because God knows she will grow up to be a goddess. After eating the fruit, Eve decides to give some to Adam.
Even though it is obvious that Adam is hurt by Eve's disobedience to God. He is unable to conceive of his existence without Eve, and so he follows her example and eats the apple. They both end up sating their newly born passion in the bushes, and when they come to, they are both embarrassed since they now understand the difference between good and evil. They argue with one other throughout the day over who was to blame for their fall.
The Son of God descends to punish the two rebellious beings. The son sentences Eve and all women to excruciating childbirths and servitude to their husbands. He sentences Adam to a life of grueling conflict with nature and laborious foraging for nourishment. He decrees that the snake will forever stay at the heels of Eve's sons, eternally crawling on its belly.
Meanwhile, Satan triumphantly makes his way back to hell. On the journey, he encounters sin and death. who have constructed a bridge from hell to earth, where they will rule over humanity. However, when Satan gets to hell, he discovers that his fellow fallen angels are hissing rather than rejoicing as he had hoped.
It quickly becomes apparent why the awful hissing is occurring. All of the fallen angels are evolving into hideous beasts and terrifying reptiles. Even Satan is unable to avoid his transformation into a terrible serpent.
After angrily accusing one another, Adam and Eve ultimately decide to turn to God and seek for forgiveness. They are heard by God, who acknowledges that he will not abandon humanity entirely to the forces of sin, death, and Satan. Instead, he will send his son to earth in the form of a man, who will then make a sacrifice sacrifice and defeat the wicked trinity.
God sends Michael to lead Adam and Eve out of the garden. But before he does anything, he reveals to Adam what will happen to mankind until the sun descends to earth. From Noah and the flood through the Jewish exile in Babylon, the history of the Jewish people as it is described in the Hebrew Bible, will be a series of expulsions from God's favor and his subsequent restoration.
Adam is grateful that the sun will make up for his and Eve's transgressions when he returns. As they are led out of the garden, he clutches Eve's hand. If you have any suggestions of which book I should summarize, please let me know in the comments and if you enjoyed this, please like and subscribe.