(London: William Pickering, 1851).

A HANDSOME SET of the works of one of the greatest literary men the English language has produced. The verse and the prose are like diamonds and pearls of equal beauty.
Along with Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, it also includes Samson Agonistes, Lycidas and all the Miscellaneous Poems, the Sonnets, the three  Libers , translations and the foreign poems and the author''s prose works aas well.
In PARADISE LOST, PARADISE REGAINED and SAMSON AGONISTES Milton revived the heroic verse of Homer and Virgil to frame the tale of Satan and Paradise that has become the best-known epic poem written in English. He had difficulty in finding a publisher because of the plague of 1665, which killed many pressmen, and the Great Fire of the following year, which destroyed many printing houses and those publishers who were still operating were wary of the project because of Milton's anti-Restoration sympathies.
Simmons, to whom he finally came, drove a hard bargain, and according to the agreement reached and the number of copies sold Milton was paid a total of £15. Milton s work survives and is revered to this day as amongst the most significant poetry and prose ever penned and additionally important, at a defining moment in the development of the English language. A truly towering figure, Milton remains one of the most celebrated and analyzed poets in English literature. Dryden described  Paradise Lost as  one of the greatest, most noble and sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced, while Blake, keying in on the poem s heretical implications, described Milton as  a true Poet, and of the Devil s party without knowing it.. Item #32472

8 volumes. First of the Edition. With a portrait and handwriting facsimile. Title-page in red and black with the fine Pickering device on the title in red and black. Large 8vo, in a period binding of full brown morocco, lettered and decorated with blind ruled and decorated borders in panel designs within compartments of the spine, gilt lettered within panels in two compartments, elaborately decorated covers employing three wide lines forming blind ruled borders enclosing a large arabesque decoration at the center of the covers executed in blind, marbled endleaves, all edges gilt. A handsome set with some age evidence, some corners and tips rubbed, the upper cover to Vol. VII detached, but easily restored as necessary.