Why I Require Students to Listen to Paradise Lost

As we read and study Paradise Lost in my course on John Milton, I require students to purchase and listen to a specific audiobook version of the famous long poem. This is the edition I require, the Naxos Audiobook version narrated by Anton Lesser (2005). (This can be downloaded via Audible. Students can get this for free with a trial membership at Audible or more expensively on CD via Amazon.)

Why require an audiobook version?
Paradise Lost, while not a theatrical play, is nevertheless very theatrical. Reading a very long poem can be a chore, and I have found that whenever I require students to listen to this poem, in addition to reading it themselves, they have the best experience.

Why this audiobook version?
I have listened to many audio versions of Paradise Lost, and I also enjoy the version with Nadia May as narrator. (I find it interesting especially to hear a female voice during the key temptation scenes in Book IX). Anton Lesser is a British actor with a fine feeling for the inherent drama in Milton's poetry. He makes it very exciting! Go to this page to listen to the free sample.

Do I really have to sign up for Audible?
No. As I said, you can get this on CDs via Amazon ($54) or even as a direct purchase download from Audible without membership (using the same link to Audible, above) for about $42. I am a big fan of Audible and have been a member for some time. I recommend it! But I also know students are economizing. Getting the free audiobook requires signing up for a monthly plan at $14.95/month, but then remembering to cancel the plan after downloading the free audiobook (which you are free to do).

Why I Require the Kindle Edition of Milton

The edition of Milton's work I've selected for my students to use is The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton (edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, Stephen M. Fallon; Modern Library edition, 2009).  Follow this link to Amazon where you can buy this for about $25.

Why pay for it?

Why buy an edition of Milton when all  his writings are available online for free? Some of those online editions are very well done, like those found in The John Milton Reading Room at Dartmouth. Besides, Milton's works are readily borrowed freely from libraries.

Milton was all about liberty, and I think he would be pleased to have his works available for free. But he was also concerned with the quality of his publications. A good edition is trustworthy. It has been established from reliable sources, and in this case, the spelling has been modernized. And of course a good scholarly edition of a literary text includes an introduction, explanatory notes, and a bibliography. It also helps to have a common edition when studying with others.

Blogging as a Tool for Studying Milton

creative commons licensed
by Drew Brayshaw

Truth is compared in scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.

--John Milton, Areopagitica

A blog is a sort of streaming fountain, and is perhaps a modern way through which truth can flow and not sicken into the muddy pool of conformity about which Milton speaks. My students and I will blog here about John Milton, his works, and his relevance for today. Team Milton will be our joint effort at exploring his writings and ideas, then developing these into more substantial pieces of writing or media to be shared beyond this blog.

Milton worked out his ideas very publicly, often, publishing pamphlets and interacting with others on the issues of his day. I think he would have taken to blogging very well! But then again, maybe he would not have written Paradise Lost if he had been a blogging superstar. In fact, the more I think of it, the less his great masterpiece is like what is done on blogs.

Could blogging be an impediment to knowledge or to creating great art? Does this sort of public, online, informal writing serve the serious purpose of studying and publishing about a famous author? Is a blog a stream in which truth can flow or grow? Or is it a trendy and superficial thing, and are we merely conforming to a current type of popular expression when we could more profitably learn and express ourselves through more traditional means? Give your opinion in the comments.