Bolder even than his Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner The Swerve, this foray from literary historian Stephen Greenblatt traces the enduring story of Adam and Eve back to its earliest sources. He illuminates the immense theological, artistic, and cultural investment—beginning with the Hebrews' exile in Babylon and culminating in the Renaissance—that made these figures so resonant and so real to millions. Greenblatt explores the leading roles of Augustine, Dürer, and Milton in this millennia-spanning creative collaboration, as well as the diversity of the story's offspring, including rich allegory, vicious misogyny, and astonishing artistic representation.