Paradise Lost - photo 1
Paradise Lost - photo 2

Paradise Lost

Lot 30
06.10.2022 12:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 16 380
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 813806
Lot 30 | Paradise Lost
Estimate value
$ 7 000 – 10 000
Paradise Lost

John Milton, 1668

MILTON, John (1608-1674). Paradise lost. A Poem in Ten Books. London: Printed by Samuel Simmons, and to be sold by S. Thomson…H. Mortlack…M. Walker…and R. Boulter, 1668.



First edition of “one of the greatest works of the human imagination” (ODNB). This is a handsome copy, from the library of a 19th century Shakespeare scholar. Amory's second issue, i.e. the first in which the new preliminary matter appears. Milton is still unsurpassed as the greatest writer of English epic. The poem declares up front its aim to "justify the ways of God to man," but explores themes both universal and personal—with Satan's seductive fascism, the surreal eroticism of the angels and the unknowable world of God, and Milton’s engagement with the science of his time continuing to captivate readers centuries later. Milton, who visited Galileo in Italy in 1638, was the first author to use the word "space" in our modern sense "outer space;" he was a supporter of Cromwell's revolution while also an outspoken critic of his Parliament, expressing values and ideas which still strongly resonate today—and throughout his poem. This is the issue with the 6-line state of “Printer to the Reader” leaf. Hugh Amory, "Things Unattempted Yet: A bibliography of the first edition of Paradise lost," in: The Book Collector, Spring 1983, pp. 41-66 (2); Pforzheimer 718 (as the "fifth title"); Wing M2138 (as "fourth state").



Quarto (175 x 124mm). Printed rule (title laid down and reinserted, with repairs including part of rule in facsimile; smaller edge repairs throughout, mostly unobtrusive but sometimes affecting rule or line numbers, a little foxed at ends). 19th-century navy morocco gilt by Rivière, edges gilt (joints a little tender). Provenance: a few washed manuscript comments – Clement Mansfield Ingleby, 1823-1886 (English Shakespeare scholar; armorial bookplate).

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