Reading Groups

John Milton’s Paradise Lost with Shirley Tung

4 Sessions Saturdays, 11:00 am EDT - 12:30 pm EDT July 26 to August 16, 2025

Online via Zoom

The ‘With Books’ option includes the title required for this group at a 10% discount from our Bookstore.

Meeting Dates:
7/26, 8/2, 8/9, 8/16
Online via Zoom

“Of Man’s first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe…”

Heralded as one of the greatest literary works ever written, John Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic retelling of Satan’s rebellion against God, and the subsequent temptation and fall of Adam and Eve. Milton boldly “pursues/ Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme” in his audacious project to “justify the ways of God to men,” offering a stunning vision of heaven, hell, and earthly paradise. Yet, Milton never loses sight of the human tragedy that is the centerpiece of this extraordinary and influential text—Adam and Eve are fleshed out as tragic lovers who are the unsuspecting targets of a Satanic plan for revenge.

Composed in the aftermath of the English Civil War, Paradise Lost also serves as an allegory for the decade-long bloody uprising that resulted in the execution of King Charles I, who claimed to rule by divine right. Thus, Milton’s epic is also a philosophical meditation on the nature of free will and predestination, the prescribed limits of knowledge, and the consequences of rebelling against the established order. This reading group will consider the insights that Paradise Lost offers us—both into the cosmos and into the human condition—during our own moment of social and political upheaval.

What to read in advance of the first meeting: Please read Books 1–3 of Paradise Lost.

What to expect from this reading group: Sessions will begin with a contextual mini-lecture, followed by a conversation opener. Although the group leader will have passages on hand to illustrate the key concepts and to guide the discussion, participants are expected to shape the course of the conversation.

Reading List:

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Please note: All virtual classes are recorded. Please click here for information about our recording policy.

Led by

Shirley F. Tung

Shirley F. Tung

Shirley F. Tung is Associate Professor of English at Kansas State University, specializing in the literature and culture of the Restoration and long eighteenth century. She is also a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Life-Writing. Dr. Tung’s scholarly work, which spans the genres of (auto)biography, epic and lyric poetry, early periodicals and print media, and travel writing, has been published in several top-tier academic journals such as European Romantic Review, Huntington Library Quarterly, and Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. At Kansas State, she teaches courses that range from medieval to modernist literature as well as classes on film and television. Her teaching has received the awards at the international, national, and collegiate levels from the British and American Societies for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Kansas State’s College of Arts and Sciences, and the Student Association of Graduates in English. Currently, Dr. Tung is completing two books: a micro-biography on John Milton’s time as a pamphleteer during the English Civil War and a braided biography of three influential eighteenth-century women travel writers.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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