This Week I am Reading ... Mrs Vikki Highams

Mrs Vikki Highams is our Operations Manager at Elmfield. Vikki shares her review of Paradise Lost by John Milton.

I have been an avid reader since I was about 5 or 6 years old; it was my go-to form of relaxation right up until I had children, and then once they were old enough to have some independence, I returned to it enthusiastically.

I read a wide variety of genres, though it’s mostly novels, and I don’t really have a favourite author, although I will try to read a full series of books if I enjoy the first one.  I don’t like to leave a book unfinished; if I start it I try very hard to finish it, even if I’m not enjoying it at all.

A few years ago, I challenged myself to start trying to read many of the classics such as Don Quixote (one of the few books I actually didn’t manage to finish), Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, Woman in White, a few of Jane Austen’s novels…  I won’t list them all.  Linked to this, my stepson challenged me to read Paradise Lost by John Milton.

I’d heard of the book, but didn’t really know anything about it and hadn’t added it to my reading list because John Milton is a poet, and I’ve never been that keen on poetry, probably because I don’t really ‘get’ it.  So I reluctantly took up the challenge because my stepson had really enjoyed it and we have many interests in common.

John Milton was an English poet who had lived through the English civil war in the 17th century (1642 – 1651), where the Roundheads defeated the Cavaliers which brought an end, temporarily, to the monarchy in Britain and introduced the sole period of Republican rule in recorded British History; it caused a complete revision of the political landscape.

Anyway, back to the book, and the poem…

It is based upon the biblical story of ‘the fall of man’, beginning with the fallen angel known as Satan, then progressing through the temptation of Adam and Eve and their ultimate expulsion from the Garden of Eden.  The number of characters is limited, and the plot isn’t overly complicated, however I have to confess that whilst I thought I knew this story pretty well, because the poem is written in old English, I found it incredibly difficult to understand and had to resort to reading a summary on Google and then reading the relevant chapter to assist my understanding of what was actually happening.

I was determined to finish the book, mainly because it was so far removed from something I would have chosen myself.  I think everyone should set themselves challenging targets to discover whether limits they’ve set themselves are realistic or reasonable, given their own specific gifts and abilities.  If nothing else, reading this book has given me a sense of achievement and something I can share with my stepson…  But, most definitely, it has confirmed that I really do not enjoy poetry!