Paradise Lost and Milton in Tenth Grade: The Life and Writings of John Milton

The Life and Writings of John Milton

by Seth Lerer

I selected this audiobook as a supplement to First Son's tenth grade English course. The Mater Amabilis™ beta high school plans recommend Paradise Lost as the second of three epics for English. I tried to read Paradise Lost when I was in college and failed. I was hoping to find something that would help put Milton in context for First Son (and myself) without putting too much strain on our schedule with a bunch of lectures.

This is a reasonably short series of lectures, six hours in total. There are a few that cover Milton in general but most focus on one or more of his works, or part of a work in the case of Paradise Lost. I listened to the whole series without reading any of Milton's works and was able to follow along, though I think it would be better to read the work in question and then listen. Milton is still not my favorite writer, but I think I will be able to grapple better with Paradise Lost after listening to these lectures.

I do think these will be helpful for First Son, so I included some of them in his assignments. I have decided to use the online edition of Paradise Lost found at the Dartmouth College website, The John Milton Reading Room. I appreciate being able to click on words for additional information.

Our schedule takes more than twelve weeks, so we will have to move through The Song of Roland and Idylls of the King a little faster. I have a sense that Paradise Lost might be the most difficult of the three and therefore worth the additional time, but I haven't read any of these three epics so we'll have to see how it goes. Here's what we have scheduled for the second term of epics.

Week 1

1. The Life and Writings of John Milton Lecture 5: Paradise Lost--An Introduction - listen and narrate (Note: we skipped lectures 1-4)

2. Book 1 lines 1-399 - narrate.


Week 2

1. Book 1 lines 400-798 - narrate.

2. The Life and Writings of John Milton Lecture 6: Paradise Lost, Book 1 - listen and narrate


Week 3

1. Book 2 lines 1-527 - narrate.

2. Book 2 lines 528-1055 - narrate.


Week 4

1. The Life and Writings of John Milton Lecture 7: Paradise Lost, Book II - listen and narrate.

2. Book 3 lines 1-371 - narrate.


Week 5

1. Book 3 lines 372-742 - narrate.

2. The Life and Writings of John Milton Lecture 8: Paradise Lost, Book III - listen and narrate


Week 6

1. Book 4 lines 1-504 - narrate.

2. Book 4 lines 505-1015 - narrate.


Week 7

1. The Life and Writings of John Milton Lecture 9: Book IV—Theatrical Milton - listen and narrate

2. Book 5 lines 1-460 - narrate.


Week 8

1. Book 5 lines 461-907 - narrate.

2. Book 6 lines 1-445 - narrate.


Week 9

1. Book 6 lines 446-912 - narrate.

2. Book 7 lines 1-338 - narrate.


Week 10

1. Book 7 lines 339-640 - narrate.

2. Book 8 lines 1-337 - narrate.


Week 11

1. Book 8 lines 338-640 - narrate.

2. Book 9 lines 1-612 - narrate.


Week 12

1. Book 9 lines 613-1189 - narrate.

2. The Life and Writings of John Milton Lecture 10: Book IX—The Fall - listen and narrate


Week 13

1. Book 10 lines 1-590 - narrate.

2. Book 10 lines 591-1104 - narrate.


Week 14

1. Book 11 lines 1-452 - narrate.

2. Book 11 lines 453-901 - narrate.


Week 15

1. Book 12 lines 1-334 - narrate.

2. Book 12 lines 335-649 - narrate.


Week 16

1. The Life and Writings of John Milton Lecture 12: Milton's Living Influence - listen and narrate (Note: we skipped lecture 11)

2. Test on Paradise Lost (not yet written)



I purchased this audiobook. I have received nothing for this post which only shares my honest opinions. I did attend Dartmouth College but had nothing to do with the creation of the website devoted to John Milton. The links to Amazon are affiliate links.

Egypt in Stories: The History of Ancient Egypt

The History of Ancient Egypt

by Bob Brier

This is a fantastic series of 48 lectures, each one around thirty minutes long. Professor Brier starts with the earliest records of humans in the Nile delta and follows the Egyptian civilization up to the Roman conquest and the death of Cleopatra, focusing mainly on the elite and pharaohs.

The professor is not a Christian, but he has two fascinating lectures on the two most famous Hebrews of Egypt: Joseph and Moses. His treatment is refreshingly positive, showing how the people and civilization described in the Biblical narrative is, if nothing else, accurate as far as we can tell from archaeological evidence.

I do think he mistakenly attributes the "idea" of a single omnipotent God to Akhenaten. While Akhenaten did turn away from the hundreds of Egyptian deities, his devotion to One God was hidden by the priests of Egypt and did not contribute to the growth of the Hebrew religion following the time of Abraham.

I listened to this course because the three younger children will study ancient Egypt at the beginning of the school year (Connecting with History volume 1) while the oldest will study Africa in his geography course. I always enjoy expanding my own background knowledge even though it's not really necessary. After listening to a few lectures, I started to consider sharing the whole course with the kids. After a few more, I convinced myself it was just too much and would take us years to get through the whole thing. But by the end, I was swayed. It's really too excellent not to share, especially when Second Daughter is completely fascinated by ancient Egypt. So I think we will listen to them together while riding in the van. We may take breaks for other books if we're overwhelmed and it will certainly take more than the few weeks of the ancient Egypt unit, but it's worth it.

For those who are considering sharing it as well, you can use just some lectures. While they build on each other, each one can stand on its own. Please be aware the lectures are meant for adult or mature listeners so there are some off-hand comments that may be surprising for younger listeners, though mostly they'd probably be ignored or not understood.

There are two lectures that deserve special attention and probably a pre-listen. Lecture 17 (Queen Hatshepsut) refers to her intimate relationship with a man who was not her husband, including descriptions of graffiti depicting them together in...disreputable circumstances. Lecture 33 (The Decline of Dynasty XIX) describes Merneptah’s unusual method of counting the Libyans killed in a battle. Often they would cut off one of the hands, but in this case they might have wanted to prove they were fighting men. It's more than just a brief mention of the episode.

I purchased this audiobook, probably during one of the 2-for-1 sales that often include the Great Courses. I have received nothing in exchange for this honest review, but the link to Amazon above is an affiliate link.

Beauty, Adventure, and a Connection to Kansas: Four Years in Paradise

Four Years in Paradise

by Osa Johnson

Osa Johnson is one of my personal heroes. Kansas Dad finds this enormously amusing since (as he says) the only thing we have in common is that we are both white women who lived in Kansas. She married Martin Johnson and travelled the wild Pacific Southwest islands and Africa in the 1930s. She and her husband were photography and videography pioneers. Among other accomplishments, they created the first silent films of the wildlife on the plains of the African Serengeti. Spoiled by modern documentaries, it's impossible for us to imagine how people felt watching herds of elephants, giraffes, and antelopes leaping across a screen. There is a small but fantastic museum dedicated to Martin and Osa Johnson in her hometown of Chanute, Kansas.

This coming school year, First Son will be exploring Africa in his tenth grade geography course. The high school beta plans from Mater Amabilis™ recommend The Flame Trees of Thika for the Travel/Adventure book of Africa, which I read earlier this year. It was lovely and there wasn't really a reason to choose anything else...except...I kept feeling like it wasn't exactly what I wanted. After a while, I realized what I wanted was a book about the Johnsons. I glanced through the options from our library and then read Four Years in Paradise. In it, Osa describes, in a wandering kind of manner, their experiences living in Kenya, near what they called Lake Paradise, filming and photographing the life of Africa.

We were attempting what all but a few regarded as fantastic and impossible, to make an authentic film record of vanishing wild life as it existed in its last and greatest stronghold. And if in some over-civilized future, cities should crowd out the elephants and wars should bomb the giraffes from the plains and the baboons from the treetops, our films would stand--a record for posterity.

Like every European or American in Africa in the 1920s and 1930s, Osa and Martin Johnson brought their own prejudices. Throughout the book, they refer to the African men who worked for them as "boys." Mrs. Johnson often writes disparagingly of their work ethic, though it's clear she respected some of them tremendously. She also sometimes writes about the Africans' natural "savage" state and compares them to children. These kinds of attitudes are pervasive and simply have to be addressed.

Over the years, Mrs. Johnson built a home in the forest complete with garden and multi-course meals every evening. But she also fished and hunted for their meals and protected her husband by covering fire when necessary as he filmed the more dangerous wildlife like lions, elephants, and rhinos.

Below us stood a big bull elephant, knee deep in a pool. He was the very picture of drowsy contentment. Save for the slow swinging of his trunk and the languid fanning of his huge ears, he was almost motionless. His bath was built of great rocks, covered over with beautiful lichen and mosses, green and gray and rusty-red. Floating on the water were large blue and white water lilies. The pool was shaded by magnificent trees festooned with silvery moss. Thousands of butterflies--blue, yellow and white--fluttered around the animal.

First Son will probably not be very interested in the handful of recipes included in the book, but there are plenty of exciting and fascinating stories, revealing the richness of the Johnsons' lives in Africa.

"Life is just too short," Martin went on. "It's a pity we can't live five hundred years with so much beauty to enjoy and so much work to accomplish."

I first borrowed this book from the library. I tried to find a copy to purchase like theirs, in hardcover with photographs, but ended up with one on slightly thinner paper. I hope it lasts through all the kids reading it. As a bonus, it is autographed by Osa Johnson. I linked to a recent paperback version above, but I am not sure it includes the photographs which are a wonderful addition to the text.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own. I borrowed this book from the library and then purchased a used copy online. Links above to Amazon are affiliate links.

Lead Us Out: The World Beyond Your Head

The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction

by Matthew B. Crawford

Dr. Crawford is the author of Shop Class as Soulcraft, a book well worth your time. Kansas Dad picked The World Beyond Your Head for one of his classes last year. He encouraged me to read it, knowing I would find in it an essential argument for the kind of life we are trying to provide for our children.

This book will require a higher level of concentration than many popular philosophical books. The author claims it was written at a level understandable by anyone with a high school education, which while probably true, would require that person be quite interested and willing to focus. My husband assigned this to one of his recent honors classes and, as far as he could tell, none of the college students made it through the book. That's a shame because it's worth the effort.

Dr. Crawford begins with attention and the myriad ways our society and culture purposefully and insidiously weaken our ability to focus and think.

As atomized individuals called to create meaning for ourselves, we find ourselves the recipients of all manner of solicitude and guidance. We are offered forms of unfreedom that come slyly wrapped in autonomy talk: NO LIMITS!, as the credit card offer says. YOU'RE IN CHARGE. [...]

The image of human excellence I would like to offer as a counterweight to freedom thus understood is that of a powerful independent mind working at full song. Such independence is won through disciplined attention, in the kind of action that joins us to the world. And--this is important--it is precisely those constraining circumstances that provide the discipline. 

His critiques of modern culture are brutal and startling.

Few institutions or sites of moral authority were left untouched by the left's critiques. Parents, teachers, priests, elected officials--there was little that seemed defensible. Looking around in stunned silence, left and right eventually discovered common ground: a neoliberal consensus in which we have agreed to let the market quietly work its solvent action on all impediments to the natural chooser within.

Essentially, corporations and marketers shape everything in our culture. The government is not permitted to write laws "limiting" the choices of consumers. We are led to believe we have complete freedom, but in reality, the corporate world employs every psychological and legal tactic to shape our every decision, creating the perception of wants only they can fulfill.

The creeping saturation of life by hyperpalatable stimuli remains beneath the threshold of concern if we repeat often enough the mantra that "government interference" is bad for "the economy."

His writing on gambling, especially the manipulations of slot machines, is even more distressing than the story in The Power of Habit.

If we have no robust and demanding picture of what a good life would look like, then we are unable to articulate any detailed criticism of the particular sort of falling away from a good life that something like machine gambling represents.

The games marketed to children on various devices employ the same tactics as slot gaming. Providing a "picture of what a good life would look like" is an indispensable aspect of our homeschool.

Like many others, Dr. Crawford tries to seek the benefits of a life of faith without actual faith in God. We can hope this sort of questioning might lead some to truly encounter Christ.

In the epilogue, he writes:

The problem we began with a few hundred pages ago was that of distraction, which is usually discussed as a problem of technology. I suggested we view the problem as more fundamentally one of political economy: in a culture saturated with technologies for appropriating our attention, our interior mental lives are laid bare as a resource to be harvested by others. Viewing it this way shifts our gaze from the technology itself to the intention that guides its design and its dissemination into every area of life.

By the end of the book, he's exploring ways to counter this cultural tendency, not just by turning off a phone but by interacting directly and meaningfully with the physical world and the people who live in it. As we develop skills manipulating the physical world, we enrich our lives and our relationships.

I would love to assign this book to my high school students, but it would probably not interest them enough to draw our the required focus. I recommend it highly to just about everyone.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post, which is entirely my own opinion. Kansas Dad bought this book for his class. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

June and July 2019 Book Reports

Antoine Lavoisier: Scientist and Citizen by Sarah R. Riedman - link to post. (library copy, purchased a used one for school next year)

The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith - link to post. (library copy)

The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley - link to post. (requested through PaperBackSwap.com)

Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals by Robert Barron - link to post. (library copy)

What Matters? Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth by Wendell Berry - link to post. (Kansas Dad's copy)

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg - link to post. (library copy)

Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education by Stratford Caldecott - link to post. (purchased locally)

I also read five other books, finished three audiobooks, and read two Shakespeare plays...but those will have to wait until another month.

I have received nothing in exchange for these posts. All opinions are my own. Links to Amazon, RC History, and PaperBackSwap are affiliate links.