1 h 48 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the hardest battle is not against an army, but against an offer that sounds reasonable?
John Milton’s Paradise Regained is a short epic poem drawn from the Gospel account of Jesus’s forty days in the wilderness. It opens with baptism at the river Jordan, then follows Jesus into solitude. There, Satan prepares a contest fought not with armies, but with flattery, clever arguments and offers that test patience and purpose.
In Milton’s telling, hunger becomes an opening for temptation, and a banquet appears in the desert. Satan makes wealth, glory and power sound like paths toward good. Jesus meets him with patient thought and reason. This sequel to Paradise Lost explores obedience and redemption through a quieter struggle, asking what it means to refuse everything that might turn you from your path.
What you’ll discover
- A wilderness of thought Enter Jesus’s solitude, where Milton gives reflection room before Satan begins his arguments.
- A banquet amid hunger Encounter a feast in the desert that makes temptation concrete and immediate.
- A persuasive adversary Meet a Satan whose flattering, reasonable voice makes each offer worth examining.
- Power as a shortcut Consider how promises of glory can make a dangerous choice seem useful.
- The strength of refusal Discover an epic whose tension rests in patience, argument and the resolve to say no.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoyed Paradise Lost and welcome its sequel, and anyone curious about the temptation story as a drama of ideas. Readers drawn to contests of minds, clever argument and the meaning of self-rule will find much to explore.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A baptism sets the contest in motion
- Alone in the wilderness, Jesus thinks
- Hunger and wealth are offered and refused
- Glory and power look like shortcuts to good
- Rome, Athens and a night of storm
- What the poem argues about temptation
- A short epic told through argument
Who’s who
- JesusThe newly baptized Son of God, who goes into the wilderness and faces Satan's offers with patience and reason.
- SatanThe fallen angel who sets out to test Jesus, using flattery, disguise and clever argument to turn him from his path.
- John the BaptistThe preacher at the river Jordan who baptizes Jesus and prepares the way for his mission.
- MaryThe mother of Jesus, who waits anxiously at home while her son is lost in the wilderness.
- GabrielThe angel to whom God explains why Satan will be allowed to test the Son.
- BelialA fallen spirit in Satan's council who proposes tempting Jesus with pleasure and women.
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Paradise Regained
by John Milton · 1671
In the wilderness, Satan offers Jesus power and glory in a contest over obedience and self-rule.
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In short
Paradise Regained is a short epic poem by John Milton, published in 1671 in the same volume as his verse drama Samson Agonistes. It comes from the last years of a life in which Milton had gone blind, served the English Commonwealth as a writer, and lost almost everything he had worked for.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A baptism sets the contest in motion
The poem opens by stating its plan. Milton, who once sang of paradise lost through one man's disobedience, now sings of paradise recovered through one man's firm obedience. He calls on the Spirit to help him, and then moves straight to the river Jordan, where John the Baptist is preaching.
Jesus comes to be baptized. The Spirit descends like a dove, and a voice from heaven names him as the Son of God. Satan hears it too. He has been wandering the world since his fall, and he now knows that a new human being has been marked out for something enormous.
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What is Paradise Regained about?
It retells the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. After his baptism, Jesus faces Satan, who offers him food, wealth, glory, power and learning. The poem shows how he answers each offer and what that says about true obedience.
Is Paradise Regained a sequel to Paradise Lost?
Yes, in theme if not in plot. Paradise Lost tells how humankind fell. Paradise Regained shows how Jesus resists Satan, and its opening lines present it as the answer to the earlier poem.
When was Paradise Regained written and published?
It was published in 1671 in a volume together with Samson Agonistes. Milton wrote it in his later years, after he had gone blind and after the political cause he supported had collapsed.
The author
John Milton
1608–1674 · English poet
John Milton (1608–1674) was an English poet and civil servant who lived mainly in London. He wrote poetry and prose, including Comus (1634), Areopagitica (1644), Paradise Lost (1667), and Paradise Regained (1671). He served as secretary for foreign tongues under England’s Commonwealth government. He became blind in 1652.
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