 Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is. Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure. We read Milton for instruction, retire harassed and overburdened,...  The Monthly magazine - Page 120by Monthly literary register - 1839Full view - About this book
 | Samuel Johnson, John Wight Duff - English poetry - 1900 - 209 pages
...knowledge. But original deficience cannot be supplied. The J£ want_of human interest is always felt. ' Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader...admires and lays down and forgets to take up again. None 10 ever wished it longer than it is. Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure. We read Milton... | |
 | John Milton - 1895
...general reading public in their heart of hearts is inclined to endorse Dr. Johnson's judgment, that Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader...admires and lays down and forgets to take up again ; that none ever wished it longer than it is ; that its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure ;... | |
 | Robert Anderson - 1973 - 639 pages
...performed to Milton is weakened, by his pronouncing " Paradise Lost " " an object of forced admiration ; one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to tak« up again." In his derogatory estimate of lf Lycidas," that " surely no man could have fancied... | |
 | Robert Anderson - 1974 - 639 pages
...performed to MiUon is weakened, by his pronouncing " Paradise Lost " " an object of forced admiration ; one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to tak« up again." In his derogatory estimate of " Lycidas," that " surely no man could have fancied... | |
 | C. C. Barfoot - Austen, Jane - 1982 - 215 pages
...predicament of the audience that has been invited to partake in his and their creation. Dr Johnson said that 'Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader...admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again'. Whatever the justice of this famous slight and its relevance to the true greatness of Milton's epic,10... | |
 | Bill Moore - Poetry - 1987 - 175 pages
...under him . . . (Sunk, you note, not sank.) And the great lexicographer: Paradise Lost is one of those books which the reader admires and lays down, and...again. Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure. . . . SAMUEL JOHNSON Talking about little children, on their way to school: Then off they start anew... | |
 | J. S. Borthwick - Fiction - 1991 - 293 pages
...Sarah, sitting at the back of the room, listened with half an ear, remembering Dr. Johnson's words that "Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader...admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is." Even Professor Merlin-Smith seemed to be suffering from the... | |
 | John T. Shawcross - Reference - 1995 - 452 pages
...universal knowledge. But original deficience cannot be supplied. The want of human interest is always felt. Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader...admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. (None ever wished it longer than it is.) Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure. We read Milton... | |
 | Tim Fulford - Literary Criticism - 1996 - 251 pages
...aesthetic disabled conventional criticism and surpassed the interests of the common reader: 'Paradłe Lost is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again' (p. 183). Here, allying himself with die common reader, Johnson gains critical revenge for the experience... | |
 | John L. Mahoney - Literary Collections - 1998 - 364 pages
...Johnson's summary claim about the reader's reaction to the poem: The want of human interest is always felt. Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader...admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is. Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure. We read Milton... | |
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