America: A Prophecy and Europe: A Prophecy: Facsimile Reproductions of Two Illuminated Books

by William Blake

35 plates in full color. Facsimile edition based on rare, priceless originals engraved and hand-colored by Blake himself.

Genres: Poetry, Romanticism, Classics, Literature, Fantasy, 18th Century, Fiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1794

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

[Stebbins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visionary, preternatural and transgressive, Blake's America: A Prophecy/Europe: A Prophecy: Facsimile Reproductions of Two Illuminated Books occupies that hazy march between insanity and lucidity.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading a bit of Blake in-between Rousseau and Radcliffe. Songs of Innocence & Experience are lyrical and Innocence, in particular, has a light, pastoral nostalgia not typically associated with Blake. Experience begins to evince the "fearful symmetries" of the mature Blake, but the author's mythos is still larval at best. Then we get to the "prophecies," and contemporaneous pieces from around 1793-5 where Blake both responds to the age of revolution and couches it in his unique, gothic vision. His strange pantheon, invoked in America and Europe, but explored more fully in Urizen and Los are strikingly proto-Lovecraftian. Urizen and Los are like Elder Gods, jarringly presiding over the birth of modernity, whereas the son, Orc (can I not think of Rutger Hauer?) is something of Loki or Ares, or is he simply that force of the Age whereby "all that is solid melts into air"?

[Phillip Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

What is bro cooking, but like derogatory this time. Couldn't get into the free verse for its own sake, nor for the allegories he is trying to make about the US and Europe. I'm missing the illustrations though, which is a lot of the point

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recurrences of his typical tropes and characters. But what does he mean by making America his Good Guy Devil?

[Adam Shenouda · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can see these prophecies being incomprehensible without extensive knowledge of MHH, Milton, Jerusalem, song of los, book of urizen, etc (or at least have s foster damon’s dictionary on hand)

[Ellee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "Songs of Experience" and "Songs of Innocence" are much more in line with contemporary taste. The use of allegory here was distracting to me and the illustrations' overlap with the text, while very visually appealing, made it difficult to read.