Kerrigan says the best way to read Paradise Lost is in a single sitting, as he did when he was in graduate school.
He set aside 24 hours, loaded up on coffee and snacks, and read the entire manuscript, ending with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden. By the time he got to the final line — 'They hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, / Through Eden took their solitary way' — he had tears streaming down his face.
Though some of the classical and biblical references in Paradise Lost are less familiar to today's readers than they were in earlier centuries, Kerrigan says the story has universal appeal:
'It's a story about losing perfection, coming to take responsibility for that loss and going on despite it. In that sense, it's a very human story, and it touches most lives, I think.'
