WILLIAM Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Lord Byron, and Philip Pullman. What do all of these writers have in common? Some of their works were strongly influenced by the writings of John Milton, especially his Paradise Lost. How they were influenced by Milton and how they applied this influence to their own works depended greatly upon their personal interpretations of Milton. This is indeed the case with Philip Pullman. The His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) was based on Pullman's interpretation of Paradise Lost and was also heavily influenced by the writings of William Blake. In the acknowledgements section at the end of The Amber Spyglass, Pullman lists three debts he must acknowledge as influences on his trilogy: an essay, "On the Marionette Theatre," by Heinrich von Kleist; Paradise Lost; and the works of William Blake. In an interview, Pullman said that he began the idea for the books during lunch with his publisher by commenting, "'Well, what I'd really like to write is Paradise Lost for teenagers in three volumes'" (Parsons and Nicholson 126). Although the work is not obviously recognizable as Paradise Lost, readers familiar with Milton's work will see the influence of it on His Dark Materials.
