The Public Domain Review

John Milton’s Paradise Lost has been many things to many people — a Christian epic, a comment on the English Civil War, the epitome of poetic ambiguity — but it is first of all a pleasure to read. Drawing on sources as varied as Wordsworth, Hitchcock, and Conan Doyle, author Philip Pullman considers the sonic beauty and expert storytelling of Milton's masterpiece and the influence it has had on his own work.

Hand-coloured cards engraved by Sidney Hall representing the constellations, from Aquarius to Ursa Major.

A book of Greenlandic Inuit folktales collected by the legendary explorer and anthropologist Knud Rasmussen.

Images of the Aurora Borealis through the history of art.

The Public Domain Review's End-of-Year Fundraiser is launched!

A satirical alphabet book mocking Cubists, Futurists, and other masters of modern art.

Of the various forms the nascent art of sound recording took in the late nineteenth century perhaps none was so aesthetically alluring as that invented by Margaret Watts Hughes. Rob Mullender-Ross explores the significance of the Welsh singer’s ingenious set of images, which until recently were thought to be lost.

Various visions of Yggdrasil, the sacred World Tree, watered by the Well of Urðr, whose roots connect to the nine worlds of Norse mythology.

Etchings of flayed men in acrobatic poses attributed to the Italian-born Juste de Juste.

After many months of secret toil and aesthetic deliberation, we are very proud to launch our brand new site — a total refurb from the ground up!