Six talking-animal characters to drink with

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Sara Brady tagged six talking-animal characters she’d like to have a drink with, including:

The Serpent (Snake from Paradise Lost, by John Milton)

Drink: Apple cider spiked with dark rum

The “subtlest beast of all the field” wouldn’t actually be the greatest drinking buddy: he’s duplicitous, self-obsessed, and can’t pick up the tab because he lacks both hands and pockets. But I’d love the opportunity to yell at him for making Eve—and, by extension, all ladies ever—the scapegoat for humanity’s failings.

Read about another entry on the list.

Milton is on Stuart Kelly's list of five great darknesses in literature.

Satan from Paradise Lost is among the 50 greatest villains in literature according to the (London) Telegraph and appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best devils in literature.

Paradise Lost also appears on Nicole Hill's list of seven books with Death as a character, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best snakes in literature, ten of the best pieces of fruit in literature, ten of the best visions of hell in literature, ten of the best angels in literature, ten of the best visions of heaven in literature, ten of the best walled gardens in literature, and ten of the best coups de foudre in literature. It is also on Diane Purkiss' critic's chart of the best books on the English Civil War and Peter Stanford's list of the ten best devils in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue