Overview

A dynamic reappraisal of Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, exploring its radical origins in the seventeenth century and its revolutionary impact on our culture ever since. **A FINANCIAL TIMES AND INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR** 'A remarkable feat' OBSERVER 'Clever, wide-ranging... witty and sardonic' NEW STATESMAN A dynamic reappraisal of Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, exploring its radical origins in the seventeenth century and its revolutionary impact on our culture ever since. Drawing on his own experiences of teaching literature in prisons, Orlando Reade focuses on twelve unexpected readers of Milton - from Malcolm X to Virginia Woolf, Hannah Arendt to Thomas Jefferson - whose lives and works have shaped our world. He shows the many different, surprising and often contradictory ways in which Milton's poem has been read across centuries and continents. Boldly original, lively and far-reaching, What in Me Is Dark is the story of how a work of literature born in the ashes of a failed revolution became an indelible part of the modern imagination. Reade guides us through the epic, exploring how Milton came to write its dark and dazzling poetry, and offering a new account of its radical, ever-evolving legacy.

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9781787334885

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Reviews

Wonderfully written, intelligent and moving. Orlando Reade follows the enduring conversation between Milton’s Paradise Lost and revolutionaries across the centuries, men and women who sought to challenge the oppressive frameworks that defined their world. Reade reminds us that literature is action, that epic poetry has the power to liberate minds, pens, and voices. Behind every revolution is a song. As it turns out, so often that song has been Paradise Lost. -- Leah Redmond Chang, author of * Young Queens *

If we ever needed a lesson about the challenges of freedom it is now. Orlando Reade’s passionate and illuminating account of the afterlives of Paradise Lost is an urgent reminder that freedom - in all senses - is poetry: there to be loved, resisted, re-worked and made to sing again for each new generation. -- Lyndsey Stonebridge, author of We Are Free to Change the World Orlando Reade's immensely readable history of the reception of Paradise Lost shows how Milton's great poem vaults across the centuries to meet new readers, its radicalism undimmed. -- Adam Smyth, author of The Book-Makers Wonderfully written, intelligent and moving... Reade reminds us that literature is action, that epic poetry has the power to liberate minds, pens, and voices. Behind every revolution is a song. As it turns out, so often that song has been Paradise Lost. -- Leah Redmond Chang, author of Young Queens Witty and sardonic... Reade writes himself into the book, not as a sleuth-researcher nor a lofty pedagogue. He is sensitive and shockable... Reade follows its zigzags, adroitly matching his episodic account of its afterlife to its key passages. It’s an ambitious structure, but he manages the intertwining of his paired strands so deftly that it feels smooth. * New Statesman * Orlando Reade writes with exhilarating style, luminous clarity, and irreverent wit. Each page of What in Me Is Dark is aflame with ideas — on the relation between politics and evil, abolition and poetry—and with the sublimity of Milton's verse, deftly brought alive. Earth may be hell, but fallen angels, as Reade shows, have been our unexpected guides toward freedom and justice. -- Anna Della Subin, author of Accidental Gods

Author Information

Orlando Reade is a writer from London. He studied English at Cambridge and Princeton, where he received his PhD in 2020. He has written about culture and politics for publications including Frieze, the Guardian, and the White Review, where he served as a contributing editor. He is currently Assistant Professor of English at Northeastern University London.

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