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Cambridge English Audio
Claim This Podcastby Faculty of English University of Cambridge
9 episodes
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6/5/2025
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May 20, 2026
Milton 400 - Paradise Lost: Book 9 (Alternate)
<p>(N.B. These recordings were made during a live reading in late 2008 and are not professional quality. We've done what we can to clean them up, but please just bear in mind how old they are and how new we were!)</p><p>This event was held on Thursday 23 October 2008 from around 9 am-9 pm, in the Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio, Faculty of English, Cambridge.</p><p><br /></p><p>4.30pm, Book IX</p><p><br /></p><p>Read by: Jeremy Hardingham, with Alice Goodman and Jonathan Styles (This alternate version of book IX exists because some listeners found the additional audio difficult to unpick from the reading. In this version, Alice and Jonathan's contributions to the art have been, mostly, muted. Please listen to the 'As Broadcast' version for the full experience. )</p><p><br /></p><p>Book IX Summary by Ned Allen (2008)</p><p>The book opens with a personal prologue and a restatement of the poem's central theme. The poem is said to be, from here on, of the tragic mode. What Milton has to relate is, moreover, epic, and he means to demonstrate how the Fall - a Christian story - is superior to other stories in which legend and myth play a significant part. It is thanks to his celestial (heavenly) muse that he is able to commit his thoughts to paper.</p><p>The action starts with Satan, compassing the earth, soliloquizing on his torment. He finds a way to sneak in to Paradise and adopts the guise of the serpent.</p><p>As day dawns, Eve suggests that they divide their labours in the garden to work more effectively, unheeded by the distractions of 'smiles' and 'casual discourse' (222-23). Adam admits the sense of Eve's suggestion, and despite voicing at some length his fear for her safety, and the pair debating whether virtue were better left untried, he eventually allows her to go. The narrator declaims against this folly, unable to let the 'event perverse' (405) pass without comment. </p><p>Satan catches sight of Eve - the 'fairest unsupported flower' (432) - and he is momentarily disarmed. But he gains her attention and begins his fraudulent temptation. Eve marvels at the serpent's human voice and Satan leads her to the tree which he claims gave him the power of speech. She resists when she discovers it is the one forbidden, but Satan commands her to look at him, and to see that the tree has yielded him a 'life more perfect' (689). Astonished by Satan's command of reason, persuaded by his flattery, and in hunger of knowledge and godhead, Eve begins to persuade herself to succumb, and plucks and eats the 'intellectual fruit' (794). She considers keeping it for herself, but decides finally to share all and brings her spouse a sample. Adam is horrified. However, he cannot bear to be separated from Eve, even if this means death, and he reconciles himself to what seems necessary: he completes the 'mortal sin | Original' (1003) by eating the fruit himself.</p><p>Adam and Eve later wake to find themselves naked and miserable. They cover themselves, ashamed, and weep at the discord of the post-lapsarian world. The book leaves them arguing and casting blame at one another.</p>
May 19, 2026
Milton 400 - Paradise Lost: Book 8
<p>(N.B. These recordings were made during a live reading in late 2008 and are not professional quality. We've done what we can to clean them up, but please just bear in mind how old they are and how new we were!)</p><p>This event was held on Thursday 23 October 2008 from around 9 am-9 pm, in the Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio, Faculty of English, Cambridge</p><p><br /></p><p>3.35pm, Book VIII</p><p>Read by: Jean Chothia, with Raphael Lyne (Raphael), Subha Mukherji (God), and Jason Scott-Warren (Adam)</p><p><strong>Book VIII Summary by Simon Jackson</strong> (2008)</p><p>Book VIII continues the conversation between Raphael and Adam. (Eve, present at first, soon leaves her husband and the angel to talk in private, preferring to wait to hear her husband relate the angel's words to her.) Adam initially asks the angel about the nature of the universe and the movements of the planets, but Raphael leaves his questions unanswered, encouraging Adam to turn his attention instead to the earth, and not to the hidden secrets of heaven. Cleared of doubt by the angel's reply, Adam seeks to prolong their conversation, and describes to the angel his experiences since his creation - his birth, his first views of Paradise, his first conversations with God, and finally the creation of Eve. This leads to a discussion of the nature of love. The day is drawing to a close, and Raphael departs, once more encouraging Adam to resist temptation.</p>
June 13, 2025
Milton 400 - Paradise Lost: Book 7
<p>(N.B. These recordings were made during a live reading in late 2008 and are not professional quality. We've done what we can to clean them up, but please just bear in mind how old they are and how new we were!)</p><p>This event was held on Thursday 23 October 2008 from around 9 am-9 pm, in the Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio, Faculty of English, Cambridge</p><p><strong>2.55 pm, Book VII</strong></p><p><strong>Read by: </strong>Daniel Wakelin, with Christopher Burlinson, Hester Lees-Jeffries, Leo Mellor, Subha Mukherji, Sophie Read, Gabriel Roberts, Marcus Tomalin, and Andrew Zurcher</p><p><a href="https://darknessvisible.christs.cam.ac.uk/plot/plot07.html">Book VII Summary by: Gabriel Roberts</a> (2008)</p><p>In Book VII Raphael continues his revelations to Adam. The book begins with a recapitulation of Milton's appeal for divine inspiration from Book I. Milton's invocation of Urania is directly paralleled with Adam's request for knowledge from Raphael. After warning Adam about the dangers of man's thirst for knowledge, Raphael proceeds to explain how the world was created, after Satan was banished from Heaven. He describes how God announced his intention to create the world, and how Heaven responded with rejoicing. God then initiated the Creation through the Son, his Word. The rest of the book charts the six days of Creation much as it is described by the account in Genesis. The last thing to be created is man. Book VII ends with a heavenly celebration of this last masterpiece of creation.</p>
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