**A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR**

‘Lively and humane… Reade’s enthusiasm and curiosity are winning’ GUARDIAN

Summoned in Haiti’s struggle against colonial rule, read in prison by the young Malcolm X, and reimagined by Virginia Woolf - this is the revolutionary history of Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost

Orlando Reade shows the many different, surprising, and often contradictory ways in which Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost has been read across centuries and continents.

Boldly original, lively, and far-reaching, What in Me Is Dark is the story of how a work of literature born in the ashes of a failed revolution became an indelible part of the modern imagination.

Reade guides us through the epic, exploring how Milton came to write its dark and dazzling poetry, and offers us a new account of its radical, ever-evolving legacy.

‘Clever, wide-ranging…witty and sardonic' NEW STATESMAN

"A brilliant close reading of Milton’s verse. Reade possesses a sharp eye for the details of Milton’s verse and his writing crackles with imaginative energy" - The Times

"A testament to the enduring power of a great work of literature to inspire." - Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

"[A] thoughtful, wide-ranging and astute book... A remarkable feat of distillation and elucidation… As a response to such a complex and equivocal historical figure [as Milton] neither hagiography nor iconoclasm seems quite adequate, and Reade’s excellent book strikes a difficult and deft balance between the two." - Observer

"Lively and humane, Reade is the friendliest of academics. Like many an English literature undergraduate, he was initially daunted by Paradise Lost…but came to adore it while teaching poetry to prisoners, and he wants you to love it, too… Reade’s enthusiasm and curiosity are winning" - Guardian, *Book of the Day*

"Clever, wide-ranging... Reade is an academic, but his book is mercifully unlike most academic works. It is witty and sardonic.... [Reade] is sensitive and shockable." - New Statesman

"Eminently readable... Reade includes a wealth of curious detail" - The Telegraph

"An admirably lucid new book" - Independent

"Rare and refreshing... gloriously and uniquely about disobedience – both in human and cosmic terms." - The Spectator

"Fresh and arresting... What in Me is Dark is a lucid and sometimes moving reminder of how Milton’s epic, for all its pre-modern erudition and doctrinal complexity, has continually been given new life by its modern readers." - Literary Review