Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Ten of the best walled gardens in literature

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best walled gardens in literature.

One book on the list:
Paradise Lost by John Milton

God surrounds "delicious Paradise" with a "verdurous wall", enclosing his blessed but vulnerable human couple. From the outside Satan can see "higher than that wall a circling row / Of goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit". There is only one gate, but the "arch-felon" jumps over the highest part of the wall, ready to begin his bad work.
Read about the other walled gardens on the list.

Satan from Paradise Lost is among the 50 greatest villains in literature according to the (London) Telegraph and appears on Mullan's list ten of the best devils in literature.

Paradise Lost also appears on Mullan's lists of ten of the best pieces of fruit in literature, ten of the best visions of hell in literature, ten of the best angels in literature, and ten of the best visions of heaven in literature. It is also on Diane Purkiss' critic's chart of the best books on the English Civil War and Peter Stanford's list of the ten best devils in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue