Author C. S. Lewis examines John Milton's "Paradise Lost" and the epic genre, discussing epic technique, subject matter, and style and the elements of Milton's story.

Since its publication in 1942, C.S. Lewis's A Preface to Paradise Lost has remained and continues to remain an indispensable introductory book for the study of Paradise Lost. Very briefly, but with remarkable clarity and precision, Lewis touches on all the important aspects of Paradise Lost: form and technique, structure and texture, theological disputes and characterization etc. Lewis believes that a poem is a public activity through which the poet intends to move his readers. It is, therefore, extremely important to know the intention of the poet, to know what the poem is, what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used. Accordingly, Lewis tries to identify the originally intended meaning of the poem in order to help the reader to have an access to Milton's intentions. In the process, the Elizabethan world order, the contemporary theological issues, the differences between De Doctrina and Paradise Lost, critical opinions on Milton's style, diction and characterizations particularly Satan, Eve, the angels and Satan's followers, are all brought to bear on his discussions in the Preface. The book is a must for any student of Paradise Lost.

In 1967 Milton studies was divided into two camps: one claiming (per Blake and Shelley) that Milton was of the devil's party, the other claiming (per Addison and C. S. Lewis) that the poet's sympathies were obviously with God and his loyal angels. Fish has reconciled the two camps by subsuming their claims in a single overarching thesis.