The four books of Paradise Regained are sparse in action and external description, and rich in dialogue primarily between Jesus and Satan. Interspersed are scenes in Heaven of God “smiling” in anticipation of “This perfect man, by merit called my Son” succeeding against Satan’s temptations (PR 1.129, 166–670); the apostles Simon Peter and Andrew expressing their “plaints” at not being able to find the “Messiah” Jesus (PR 2.1–59) followed by that of Jesus’ mother Mary (PR 2.60–108); and Satan scheming in Hell (PR 1.33–118, 2.115–235). Book 1 starts in media res in accord with early modern Western epic conventions, with Jesus entering the desert for the Temptation in the Wilderness, after he is baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist and before he embarks on his public mission. The baptism is obsessively recounted by the narrator and different characters (PR 1.18–32, 268–89, 327–34; 2.1–12, 82–85). Jesus then undergoes the temptations, in the Lukean order—of turning stone to bread, of power over the kingdoms of the world seen in a mountain vista, and of throwing himself from the pinnacle of the Temple to be rescued by angels—all of which he overcomes by quoting Hebrew Bible / Old Testament passages. Book 4 concludes with “Satan smitten [. . .] with amazement,” “struck with dread and anguish,” and falling back to Hell; and with Jesus whisked off the pinnacle by angels who provide him with “celestial food, divine, / Ambrosial fruits fetched by the Tree of Life / And from the Fount of Life ambrosial drink” and sing “Heavenly anthems of his victory / Over temptation, and the Tempter proud” before “he unobserved / Home to his mother’s house private return[s]” in the final line of the brief epic (PR 4.562, 576, 588–90, 594–95).

Reception and translation of Paradise Regained has been limited. In eighteenth-century England, Samuel Johnson opined that Paradise Regained “has been too much depreciated.” In twentieth-century Argentina, Jorge Luis Borges vacillated in his assessment of Paradise Regained. Although he read it voraciously along with all Milton’s other works in an “Everyman’s Library edition” at the age of 15, in his maturity he wrote: “I am sorry to say, perhaps to reveal to you, that these are the last lines of Paradise Regained, ‘hee unobserv’d / Home to his Mothers house private return’d,’ the language is plain enough, but at the same time it is dead.”

I remember reading Paradise Regained for the first time as an undergraduate in the 1980s. I found it approachable because of its brevity and its allusive focus. Rather than wielding his vast storehouse of great learning, as he commonly does in his political prose and other poetry, Milton maintains in this work a sharp focus on the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and incorporates major themes from the Gospel of John and the Bible more generally. I share an appreciation for this work with British artists William Blake (1816–20) and J. M. W. Turner (1835), who were inspired by Paradise Regained to create visual art in the nineteenth century, and the US illustrator Gary Panter, creator of the graphic novel Songy of Paradise, Wherein Satan and A Hillbilly Re-Enact The Temptation Of Jesus In The Desert, Hewing To John Milton’s Epic Poem Paradise Regained But Without Milton Verbosity (2017).