The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake

by G.E. Bentley Jr.

Bentley traces Blake from his natal landscape, youth, marriage, and apprenticeship through to his later years as a working engraver, poet, and radical visionary. Bentley is academic and thorough

Genres: Biography, Art, Poetry, Nonfiction, Romanticism, Religion, Biography Memoir

632 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Mary Overton]

"What [Catherine Blake] was good at was managing [the Blakes'] finances. Blake himself 'spoke of his horror of Money. Of his turning pale when money had been offerd him', and he confessed that 'I seldom carry money in my pockets': '"Were I to love money," he said, "I should lose all power of original thought; desire of gain deadens the genius of man. I might roll in wealth and ride in a golden chariot, were I to listen to the voice of parsimony. My business is not to gather gold, but to make glorious shapes, expressing god-like sentiments." His disciple Samuel Palmer said that 'He worked on with serenity when there was only a shilling in the house. Once (he told me) he spent part of one of these last shillings on a camel's hair brush.'

"When Catherine felt she had to mention that
"'The money is going, Mr. Blake.'
"'Oh, d-- the money!' he would shout; 'it's always the money!'

"Catherine learned to avoid these outbursts by setting
"'before him at dinner just what there was in the house, without any comment until, finally, the empty platter had to make its appearance: which hard fact effectually reminded him it was time to go [from designing] to his engraving for a while. At that, when fully embarked again, he was not unhappy; work being his natural element.'

"Catherine knew, however, that their resources were not so depleted as the empty plate suggested, for she 'always kept a guinea or sovereign for any Emergency, of which Blake never knew, even to the day of his Death. This she did for years ....' The only person who could manage William Blake consistently was his wife Catherine." pg. 73

[Kevin Tole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember stumbling across the Blakes in a low-lit cellar room in the old Tate, back when it was just ‘The Tate’ before the Palace of Excess to Sir Nikolas Verucca was built further down the river, back in year doodley squat when life was simpler. I remember as a teenager being stunned. What now brings me to this book is E.P. Thompson's mentions of Blake in ‘The Making of the English Working Class'. The time frames overlap. EPT gives Blake a coating of political Dissent which does not appear to have much going for it in reality.

By contrast, G.E. Bentley Jr. is a Blake scholar. When you are looking for a biography you might as well get the best and this, published in 2001, is the first ‘full’ biography of Blake. It is full of footnotes, endnotes, intertextual comments, references and a useful if not comprehensive section of illustrations. I was aware of Ackroyd's book on Blake, but it is somewhat in error in places and is pretty straightforward. This Bentley book is about as thorough as you can get. It is NOT an art historian-based book so there is nothing on techniques and the printing process is a little sketchy (not that you get much of that anyway from art historians these day as they now appear to be much more interested in showing the latter part of their vocations rather than the former, pace James Elkins who was an artist before an art historian. Put it down to the academicisation of Art Schools to Art College to departments in Universities.)

Blake was born in 1757 and died penniless in 1827. His dates therefore correspond to EPT’s study of the making of the English working class in London. Blake was indeed a Dissenter, but his dissent was more in a religious sense rather than political. He felt that he must

’create a system or be enslaved by another man’s. I will not reason or compare. My business is to create’

Blake’s view of the world was as a mystic, and from an early age he publicised that he could ‘see’ and ‘converse’ with the spirits of long dead personages as well as with angels and demons. He gave this information up straightforwardly and as matter-of-fact, more surprised that others could not do the same. Many of his poems and illustrations owe themselves to these ‘visitations’ with the spirits. For Blake, the World was the Beast and the Whore. The true world lived in the spirit nurtured by ’the bread of sweet thought and the wine of Delight’. Blake had no formal schooling but was apprenticed to an engraver where he learnt and expanded his trade to become one of the greatest of English engravers. He etched and engraved, not always in intaglio, commonly as ‘relief etching’ where the ink is held on the unetched parts of the plate, and produced sublime watercolours and tempera paintings. Blake was a committed Deist, though his views would hardly be considered withing the spectrum of religions from his time (though there is much in common with the Muggletonians and the works of Swedenborg). His views were that everyone was coexistent with God, and that all things alike were the work of God and hence good. There was no room for Evil. Earthly glory detracted from spiritual glory. He believed in suffering - ’where there is capacity of enjoyment, there is the capacity of pain’. Bacon, Locke and Newton were the instruments of Atheism and thus the instruments of Satan (who, along with Adam was the sun of God). He did not believe in the omnipotence of God and considered death as ’just moving from one room to another’. At various times, and by various members of his acquaintances he was considered mad but harmless, yet in some way prophetic and a seer-like mystic.

He entered and trained further at the Royal Academy (established by Joshua Reynolds in 1769 and then based at Somerset House on the Strand) but he would never become an Academician, engraving then seen as a lesser art. He saw and was affected by the Gordon Riots against Catholic emancipation in 1778. He married in 1782 aged 24 but was childless all his life. His wife became his mainstay and he taught her to read, write and the craft and technique of printing and painting such that she became virtually his apprentice. Furthermore Catherine became the financial heart as Blake felt demeaned by handling money.

Blakes group of friends and supporters was wide thoughout his life. They included the painter Fuseli, the sculptor John Flaxman and the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was also at least acquainted with the political dissenters Horne Tooke, William Goodwin and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Throughout his life Blake had little concern for money. At times he earned good sums for his printings of his books (the relationship between ‘designer’, ‘engraver’, ‘printer’ and ‘publisher’ during Blake’s life is not that well discussed and identified by Bentley) and at other times was somewhat cheated and maligned and paid ridiculously low sums for his plates and designs. Reading this made me realise that many of Blake’s sayings and captions have passed outright into the English language – not just the words of ‘Jerusalem’ and the words of The Tyger. ’The Road to excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom’ is a Blake-ism. His books of poetry and polemic were always illustrated by him with the most exquisite of engravings more often than not hand-coloured if not already coloured at the printing stage. But although always working and prolific we now in the present age do not have a full catalogue of his work and though there are references to some pieces, they cannot be found. Some of this is down to the fact that Blake never sold that well such that at his death he held many examples of his work. These passed to his benefactors and some were indeed disposed of and destroyed.

Reading through Bentley’s work there are many signs that Blake suffered at times from deep depression and deep elation – a manic depressive. Today he might have been diagnosed as bipolar. He had a low opinion of himself particularly in the company of other artists. However he still believed in his superiority as a visionary. Towards the end of his life he developed a serenity noted by all his acquaintances who accepted him as he was. They drew him out in his poverty to introduce him to prospective patrons who rarely gave him extensive work enough to live on and for the latter part of his life he was dependent on the charity of two or three members of his supporters. He died in a small flat off in Fountains Court of the Strand on the 12th August 1827 and was buried in the grounds of Bunhill Fields. His work, what we have, will live on as the work of a Mystic and a Visionary and a Great Artist.

”It is not what we see, but how we see it.”

“This Lifes dim windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with, not through the Eyes.”

[Prima Seadiva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to check this out I didn't even have to put a hold on it- a minor miracle at my library.
I read the first 80-100 pages, tried to read more then browsed the rest hoping I would get engaged somewhere. I found it rather disjointed and a bit turgid. While obviously massively researched (with thousands of footnotes and 50 pages of addenda), I could not get a sense of flow about the events of Blake's life. Except for an occasional paragraph neither he nor contemporaries really came to life for me. I also think I would prefer separate chapters about his actual art processes. As an artist I found them interesting but when inserted the flow of his story was interrupted for me.

Last maybe not completely fair in a biography format(and my poor eyesight) the reproductions of his work were so small I could not really see detail or read any of the text.
I love Blake's work and had hoped to know more about the man and his life but this book was not successful for me.

[Aria Ligi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book. I highly recommend it.

[Mark Karnowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best biography of Blake. From a scholar who spent a lifetime researching all the historical records relating to this curious, elusive, frustrating and inspiring British poet and artist.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to look up a biography of Blake after I pulled his poetry off the shelf one day and realized that I couldn't understand the majority of it. Things like "Vala, or the Four" and "The Book of Urizen" had no meaning to me-- I didn't know all these proper nouns. Perhaps a biography would help.
And it did. I learned that Blake grew up a Dissenter, a group opposed to the dominant Anglican church and that viewed the world as under the influence of the Beast and the Great Whore as pictured in the Book of Revelation. I learned that he believed himself a prophet and that he had visions and talked with spirits.
I had a hard time fully engaging with the book because it seemed written for a different audience-- for scholars of Blake rather than the average reader. A large portion of the book was quotes, and quotes that weren't updated to modern capitalization, spelling-- and some words were just abbreviations. Perhaps that's too much to expect in a biography.
After reading it, his poetry will still be a challenge. Many of his contemporaries felt the same way, and he was even called insane, especially later in life. But some can be very inspiring.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, readable, and very well documented biography of William Blake from one of the top Blake critics alive today. Main criticisms I've heard are that it doesn't rely enough on original archival research and is too close to being a narrative version of Blake Records. However, this work is so well researched that archival research would be a supplement to an already dense structure. Does a good job of focusing on Blake's life and reading the poems within it rather than descending into explication of the poems. Best Blake biography since Gilchrist.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times it is difficult to catch sight of Blake himself through the sheer fog of perspectives Bentley discloses. It is astounding the number of voices he puts forward to testify to Blake's life; it would be nice to have a little more of Blake's own voice. That said, the book was thorough and enlightening.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blake will never die he brought to light what most would never say or do.

[James Prothero]

a very detailed and well written, and scholarly biography