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A recommendation to the Dutch "precursor" to Paradise Lost: Vondel's "Lucifer" is a tight five-act play along the same lines. It's about a century older than Pa
by ivanmilles 6y ago
A recommendation to the Dutch "precursor" to Paradise Lost: Vondel's "Lucifer" is a tight five-act play along the same lines. It's about a century older than Paradise Lost, with a contemporary energy that's quite fun and punchy, and a quick read.
Noel Clark's translation gives it a modern air of office politics as Lucifer and Beelzebub quarrel with Gabriel on how to behave in their shared workplace.
- markhollis 6y agoI can confirm. Reading Lucifer was one of the highlights in high school of my Dutch class.
- toyg 6y agoAnd of course there is Dante's Divine Comedy, which started the whole thing in 1300...
- dhosek 6y agoThere's a bit of OT apocrypha that's a likely source of inspiration for Paradise Regained, Milton's sequel to Paradise Lost. I believe it was the Book of Adam (or something similarly titled). A quick Google search doesn't turn up anything likely and the I lent the volume I had which included this apocryphon to my brother who subsequently lost it at some point later, so I only have 20+ year old memories of the book. There's a long tradition of retellings and expansions of Biblical stories in both Christianity and Judaism that also contributed a great deal to Paradise Lost.
- aspenmayer 6y agoDo you recall the title which contained the aforementioned apocryphal text?
- dhosek 6y agoForgotten Books of Eden. Apparently it's less obscure than I thought, which gave me a Wikipedia article with the contents. The text was the First and Second Book of Adam and Eve aka Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan. Wikipedia article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_Adam_and_Eve_with_Satan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_Adam_and_Eve_with_...