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What In Me Is Dark

The Revolutionary Life of Paradise Lost

by Orlando Reade

**A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR**

'Lively and humane... Reade's enthusiasm and curiosity are winning' GUARDIAN
Summoned in Haiti's struggle against colonial rule, read in prison by the young Malcolm X, and reimagined by Virginia Woolf - this is the revolutionary history of Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost

Orlando Reade shows the many different, surprising, and often contradictory ways in which Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost 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 offers us a new account of its radical, ever-evolving legacy.

'Clever, wide-ranging...witty and sardonic' NEW STATESMAN
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NON FICTION
LITERARY CRITICISM, BOOKS & WRITING GUIDES
ESSAYS & REFERENCE

pre-order available

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Pages:

272

Published:

2 Dec 2025

Format

Paperback

Publisher

Penguin Random House

Imprint

Jonathan Cape

ISBN:

9781529923261

**A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR**

'Lively and humane... Reade's enthusiasm and curiosity are winning' GUARDIAN

Summoned in Haiti's struggle against colonial rule, read in prison by the young Malcolm X, and reimagined by Virginia Woolf - this is the revolutionary history of Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost

Orlando Reade shows the many different, surprising, and often contradictory ways in which Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost 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 offers us a new account of its radical, ever-evolving legacy.

'Clever, wide-ranging...witty and sardonic' NEW STATESMAN
$30.00