By Elizabeth Prata

When someone says “summer reading” it usually brings to mind beach reads, AKA light novels, that are aimed to entertain. Since people take vacations in summer, they bring with them a novel that isn’t mentally demanding, just aiming to soak up the book in their hand and the sun above as they escape briefly from their workaday life.

I’m the opposite. Summer reading for me means I choose demanding books because I’m off work for the summer. During school my mental capacities are stretched to the max. I teach reading to a succession of 6 small groups over 4 different grades using 3 different reading programs. It’s a lot. I love it, but it drains me mentally.

When I get home, I’m a zombie and it takes a pot of tea and an hour to recover. I have nNo capacity for demanding novels.

So in the summer when I’m off and I’m not being challenged mentally, it’s the perfect time to make my TBR stack of classics, or ‘books I’ve always wanted to read but haven’t yet’ or ‘a book that is hard for me. Four summers ago I tackled Moby-Dick. Then it was Treasure Island. Then Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. So this summer it’s going to be…

I saw it advertised on Grace Books’ website and it is not only one I’ve always wanted to read but this edition is a beautiful book. I mean, you had me at ‘gilt edged’. And ‘cloth bound’. Yes, I judge a book by its cover. Come at me, lol.

It’s John Milton’s epic poem, “Paradise Lost’. Written in 1667, the publisher promises that it is an unabridged version but there are margin notes for unfamiliar words. So already I know the language is going to be demanding. And harder for me personally, is the fact that it is written as an Epic Poem. I have a rough time with poetry, I just don’t understand it.

An Epic Poem is (according to Encyclopedia Britannica), “long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds. Outstanding examples of the written epic include Virgil’s Aeneid and Lucan’s Pharsalia in Latin, Chanson de Roland in medieval French, Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso and Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata in Italian, Cantar de mio Cid in Spanish, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene in English.”

I read The Aeneid, The Odyssey and The Iliad, when I was in my early 20’s. Forty-five years later – ahem – my brain may have dimmed somewhat. In fact, I when I was in High School and just after, I read most of the standard classics listed in top 100 lists and I’m glad I did back then because reading or re-reading them now is much harder. But every summer, I select a classic to read or re-read, and that is my Summer Reading!

The version issued by Grace Books was on 40% off the regular price at the time (it’s still 10% off now), so of course I could not resist. The book itself (according to the blurb) contains:

Explanatory notes are included in the margins for allusions to Greek mythology and obscure words.

• Introduction by Dr. Leland Ryken
• Cover design by Stephen Crotts
• 50 vintage illustrations by the renowned Gustave Doré; modified to cover nudity
• Genuine cloth cover with gold foil print and a ribbon page marker

What is Paradise Lost about? Adam and Eve’s rebellion and humanity’s fall from grace. One reviewer of this edition on Amazon said,

“Having biblical backgrounds in its plot of being about Adam and Eve‘s temptation and humanity’s fall from grace, “Paradise Lost” should be read for its unparalleled sonorous language, it’s profound exploration of human freedom, disobedience and rebellion, and its impact on Western literature. It offers a complex, timeless, psychological portrait of Satan serving as a foundational text for understanding the archetypal antihero.”

OK, this should keep me busy! Here are the photos of this beautiful edition. I appreciate Gustave Doré’s illustrations. He was a famous French artist, printmaker, and caricaturist who died in 1883. He is best known for his wood-engravings illustrating classic literature, especially Dante’s Divine Comedy. What I really appreciate in this edition is that though the language has been left alone, the illustrations have been lightly edited to cover up the nudity in Doré’s illustrations.

I mentioned I do judge a book by its cover. Here are two others I’ve recently acquired. The Pilgrim’s Progress was a free gift from Chapel Library, and the Van Dyke I bought myself. See what I mean? If I am going to own books, they might as well be beautiful. My other reading selection this summer is a re-read of Pilgrim’s Progress. I’ll also finish the Grisham I started, as well as Lady Audley’s Secret, Lord willing and the eyes don’t fail!

Happy reading and book-ing this summer! What is on your TBR list?