Is there a book more widely loved than Paradise Lost by an author more universally disliked than John Milton? Catholics dislike Milton for his anti-Catholicism, Anglicans dislike him for his nonconformity, monarchs dislike him for his republicanism, republicans dislike him for his religiosity, and feminists dislike him for his supposed misogyny. Samuel Johnson captured the sentiment of many in saying that Milton’s “predominant desire was to destroy.” But Paradise Lost? Johnson writes that it is, “A poem which, considered with respect to design, may claim the first place … among the productions of the human mind.”