Meticulously edited, full of tactful annotations that set the stage for his work and his times, this Modern Library edition brings Milton, as a poet and a thinker, vividly alive before us.--Robert Hass, winner of the 2007 National Book Award. Edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, and Stephen M. Fallon John Miltons Paradise Lost, an epic poem on the clash between God and his fallen angel, Satan, is a profound meditation on fate, free will, and divinity, and one of the most beautiful works in world literature. Extracted from the Modern Librarys highly acclaimed The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton, this edition reflects up-to-date scholarship and includes a substantial Introduction, fresh commentary, and other features--annotations on Miltons classical allusions, a chronology of the writers life, clean page layouts, and an index--that make it the definitive twenty-first-century presentation of John Miltons timeless signature work.