Note from an English major: Paradise Lost is not worth reading. Reading the surroundings of the work and the symbolism and themes, Milton's life & the state of English society at the time is entertainment enough for anyone. The work itself has good parts, bit like Shelley's Frankenstein, without literary comment OR an education in literate going back to the Greeks you will not understand it as it was out to be understood. Having read Paradise Lost is a precursor to Frankenstein. Literary circlejerking was the privilege of the rich even at the time.