Favorite Works of William Blake: Three Full-Color Books

by William Blake

Gift set includes Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience , and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Genres: Poetry, Art

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 1996

About the author

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.

Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".

Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.

Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Innocence & Experience were good, but Marriage was an odd bit of writing for me.

[Jerome Berglund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, particularly the third installment 'the Marriage of Heaven and Hell'! Irreverent and pleasantly challenging, alternating unexpectedly between modes of Confucius, Tim Leary, Aesop and a Libertine. His simultaneous rejection and affirmation of religion and its many appendages and facets is also thought provoking and unique. The pairing with artwork by the poet himself really makes Blake particular fun to read, and a visual experience as much as an oral one. Speaking of which, these are the kind of poems you want to read out loud, memorize and recite, that you'd expect to crop up being taught in History Boys or another Oxford/Cambridge movie, or by Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, or Devito in Renaissance Man (I feel like at least one of those happened lol?). That is to say memorable, iconic, life affirming stuff here, if unimposing in their shortness and apparent simplicity of subject matter. Grateful to a friend for suggesting this to me, William Blake is an author worth achieving a degree of familiarity with for certain!

[Gerardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Blake and all the Romanticos. I read these three books and I was blown away by the drawn plates that Blake had included. I mean being able to read and to see thes plates are so cool. Great work and priceless.

[Ely · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has definitely convinced me to pick up some more Blake poetry.