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World of Art
William Blake
Prophet, poet, painter and engraver -- Blake's uniqueness lies in no single achievement, but in the whole of what he was, which is more than the sum of all that he did. So writes Kathleen Raine in this classic study of William Blake, a man for whom the arts were not an end in themselves, but expressed his vision of the spiritual drama of the English national being. Profusely illustrated, this volume presents a comprehensive view of Blake's artistic achievements and a compelling and moving portrait of the life and thought of an extraordinary genius.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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About the author
Kathleen Raine
154 books35 followersKathleen Jessie Raine CBE was an English poet, critic and scholar, writing in particular on William Blake, W.B. Yeats and Thomas Taylor. Known for her interest in various forms of spirituality, most prominently Platonism and Neoplatonism, she was a founding member of the Temenos Academy.
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December 22, 2019"For Blake, outward events and circumstances were the expressions of states of mind, ideologies, mentalities, and not, as for the determinist-materialist ideologies of the modern world, their causes. Blake's 'dark satanic mills', so often invoked in the name of social reform, prove, when he read Milton (the poem in which these mills are most fully described) to be the mechanistic 'laws' of Bacon, Newton and Locke, of which the industrial landscape was a reflection and expression. Man has made his machines in the image of his ideology. So, always, Blake seeks to discover the source of social and private ills within man. Only a change of the heart and mind of the nation can create a new society and new cities less hideous than those created by an atheist and mechanistic rationalism" (pp73-4)
156 illustrations, 28 in colour - no I did not count them - I just copy the information off the back cover as a public service.
Blake is a complex subject, I am not sure that Raine does complete credit to that but in the context of a brief 207 pages of book (excluding the index and bibliography and so on) she does an impressive job which one could criticise infinitely on the details I am sure, but as an introduction to the life and work of William Blake, engraver, poet, mystic, Londoner it is engaging and readable. I read some Blake years and years ago, possibly when shaving was an adventure and not a chore, and this book has tickled me to go back and read more of him.
Raine's Blake is a Platonist, at odds with what he understands as an atheistic and materialistic culture, his work is aimed at encouraging the spiritual birth of the person. The World as it is, he sees as St. Paul's Cathedral; Blake's spiritual conception is incarnated in Westminster Abbey. Blake understands a civilisation, a culture, as a unity; it's intellectual and spiritual life is evident in it's laws and institutions (hmm, all this made much more sense to me before I started typing).
To move back a lot and to approach the subject from a different angle Raine explains Blake as creating illuminated manuscripts in a print medium, a problem for modern readers (consumers) is that the text is often separated from the illustrations. The art is in the Tate, the poetry in books, but the artists intention was that the two work together, a secondary issue is that Blake himself was not consistent or possibly unsure exactly how they would do this, in the surviving copies of Songs of innocence and experience for instance, the songs are not all in the same order, one even in some copies shifts from innocence over into experience. Raine tells us that other works have survived in smaller numbers than the 37 copies of Innocence and experience.
Another angle is Blake's admiration of Renaissance masters, particularly Michelangelo, once pointed out it is an obvious influence - particularly in the torsos of the figures of naked women, which are superbly and implausibly muscular.
Raine sees several of Blake's works as anticipating the Futurist and the Symbolists, however since Blake did not inspire a school of subsequent British artists there was to be no short cut through Art History, indeed much of his output seems to have been lost after his death.
Blake's religion, or non-religion, caused him some problems as he was in that last percentile group of the normal distribution chart of the population's religious attitudes in which one can find almost complete diversity of views and almost complete mutual hostility, given his radical politics this meant that in his life time his work was judged harshly, and he found it difficult to find patrons (or money), it was a very political age and much the same happened to Keats (and, I assume, among others too).
A great introduction.
156 illustrations, 28 in colour - no I did not count them - I just copy the information off the back cover as a public service.
Blake is a complex subject, I am not sure that Raine does complete credit to that but in the context of a brief 207 pages of book (excluding the index and bibliography and so on) she does an impressive job which one could criticise infinitely on the details I am sure, but as an introduction to the life and work of William Blake, engraver, poet, mystic, Londoner it is engaging and readable. I read some Blake years and years ago, possibly when shaving was an adventure and not a chore, and this book has tickled me to go back and read more of him.
Raine's Blake is a Platonist, at odds with what he understands as an atheistic and materialistic culture, his work is aimed at encouraging the spiritual birth of the person. The World as it is, he sees as St. Paul's Cathedral; Blake's spiritual conception is incarnated in Westminster Abbey. Blake understands a civilisation, a culture, as a unity; it's intellectual and spiritual life is evident in it's laws and institutions (hmm, all this made much more sense to me before I started typing).
To move back a lot and to approach the subject from a different angle Raine explains Blake as creating illuminated manuscripts in a print medium, a problem for modern readers (consumers) is that the text is often separated from the illustrations. The art is in the Tate, the poetry in books, but the artists intention was that the two work together, a secondary issue is that Blake himself was not consistent or possibly unsure exactly how they would do this, in the surviving copies of Songs of innocence and experience for instance, the songs are not all in the same order, one even in some copies shifts from innocence over into experience. Raine tells us that other works have survived in smaller numbers than the 37 copies of Innocence and experience.
Another angle is Blake's admiration of Renaissance masters, particularly Michelangelo, once pointed out it is an obvious influence - particularly in the torsos of the figures of naked women, which are superbly and implausibly muscular.
Raine sees several of Blake's works as anticipating the Futurist and the Symbolists, however since Blake did not inspire a school of subsequent British artists there was to be no short cut through Art History, indeed much of his output seems to have been lost after his death.
Blake's religion, or non-religion, caused him some problems as he was in that last percentile group of the normal distribution chart of the population's religious attitudes in which one can find almost complete diversity of views and almost complete mutual hostility, given his radical politics this meant that in his life time his work was judged harshly, and he found it difficult to find patrons (or money), it was a very political age and much the same happened to Keats (and, I assume, among others too).
A great introduction.
April 12, 2018
This concise work on William Blake's art is part of the Praeger series of art books, and functions as an introduction or short overview to his works. Between illustrations, there is also a biography in broad strokes and some art criticism. I had picked this volume up at a library sale some time ago, and pulled it off my shelves when I decided to spend some time on Blake's writing--his art and his writing seem to be two halves of the whole, and since the volume of his writing that I have has almost no illustration in it at all, I thought this might make a good companion piece. For my needs, I think it worked well, though I would still like to find an edition that presented both the writing and the engraving together, or, failing that, a larger volume of his art with more color plates. While this one did have some nice examples, the size of the book (slightly smaller than a modern hardback) was a drawback. Also--I don't know how much of Blake's work is still extant, but I had the feeling that this Praeger edition had a limited selection.
As a purely introductory volume, I think this is probably quite sufficient--it is the type of book designed to whet your appetite or to satisfy your idle curiosity or to confirm your dislike. For me, it will be a decent edition to keep until I can find something with a larger example of Blake's works. I still find it preferable to have physical volumes on hand, although any particular example of Blake's art that I'd like to see is easily available on the internet. Somehow it doesn't seem as convenient to me.
As a purely introductory volume, I think this is probably quite sufficient--it is the type of book designed to whet your appetite or to satisfy your idle curiosity or to confirm your dislike. For me, it will be a decent edition to keep until I can find something with a larger example of Blake's works. I still find it preferable to have physical volumes on hand, although any particular example of Blake's art that I'd like to see is easily available on the internet. Somehow it doesn't seem as convenient to me.
August 19, 2019
A useful introduction to Blake, with many plates, quite a number in color. I found the book in the Tuscany villa's library and was immediately engrossed by it. The Imagination, Jesus. The energy of the line in drawing. One law for the ox and the lion is oppression. Reading the book had the effect of biting into a grape.
March 6, 2023
This book gets four stars just because it managed to make Blake sort of accessible. Blake is very much the Artists' Artist and the Poet's Poet, in that he uses lots of metaphors and complex imagined world and figures and you have to know the backstory and full context for each little picture to make sense. Patti Smith likes him, Allen Ginsberg likes him, if that gives you an idea of about where he's at (religiously Nonconformist late-1700s psychedelia is kind of how I would describe it). And yet, after reading this book, I feel like it makes sense! Most of the figures form a coherent(ish) picture now! Most of the lines make a coherent(ish) poem! To be honest even some of the poems he wrote for kids are fairly out there.
This book was an amazing guide. It was beautifully illustrated, good colours on the pages, and not massive and seven hundred kilos like art books tend to be. If you've never heard of Blake this is a cool place to start, and even though I'd read a few of his things before they make more sense now I've read this. The religious pantheon he invented takes a bit of thinking, but this book explains it so reasonably that it feels natural. It was interesting reading about the ways he printed his plates and then watercoloured them, and his 'tempera frescos' that aren't.
This book was an amazing guide. It was beautifully illustrated, good colours on the pages, and not massive and seven hundred kilos like art books tend to be. If you've never heard of Blake this is a cool place to start, and even though I'd read a few of his things before they make more sense now I've read this. The religious pantheon he invented takes a bit of thinking, but this book explains it so reasonably that it feels natural. It was interesting reading about the ways he printed his plates and then watercoloured them, and his 'tempera frescos' that aren't.
October 8, 2022
This just wasn’t what I was expecting I guess. There are loads of pictures of his work but the writing is mostly ‘he lived here’ ‘this person commissioned this’ ‘this references Dante or bible story’. I should probably stick to Taschen type artist books that actually discuss the work with an overview of their life for context
April 24, 2017
I came across this book by chance on a second hand charity bookshelf. It sparked my curiosity, as I felt I didn't know enough about Blake (or indeed the poet Kathleen Raine). Magnificently illustrated and engagingly written, focusing on Blake's artworks more than his writing, this book has helped me know this extraordinary creative figure far better, appreciate him more fully and come to like him a great deal more. It forms a great and a sympathetic introduction.
April 24, 2023
I appreciate World of Art republishing all these studies from the 60s and 70s instead of commissioning new ones. I’m sure it’s just a money saver for them but the fact of the matter is that the quality of art writing for a general audience was generally much higher in the days of Kenneth Clark and John Berger. I’ve come to think that if you’re looking for a biography or a history book or something usually the sort of boring looking 70s one that the library is on the verge of throwing out might be a better bet than the shiny new one in your local independent bookstore, particularly if the author is some oxbridge academic that got an actual rigorous humanities education and probably knows latin and greek and whatnot.
Colin Trodd’s intro talks about how Raine’s whole thing back in her era was pushing back against Marxist scholars like E.P. Thomson who read into Blake a critique of the Industrial Revolution and of Empire etc, and arguing for the purely mystical and theological bent of his work. She was a mystic too and a poet and a follower of Yeats (see, academics really did used to be more interesting). Now this seems like a completely false dichotomy to me - surely one can be both a social reformer and a mystic? It certainly seems wrong to cast Blake as nothing more than a particularly florid critic of empire (or to say that all the stuff about Orc and Urizen is just a disguised critique of the dark satanic mills etc) but it seems equally wrong to say he was only concerned with his own soul. I’m sure the question is handled with a bit more nuance in her two-volume, 800-page Blake and Tradition.
That being said this book was a bit uneven. It does have the quality you find in a lot of books written by academics for a general audience where they jump straight into analysis and forget to state the main idea they’re working with (like this book will refer to Blake’s weird cosmology as if you’re already familiar). But it’s usually either that or assuming that their mouthbreathing audience of dullards needs everything spoonfed to them in young adult fiction style (This is much more common in the modern age, someone like Reza Aslan is a good example.) so I suppose I prefer the latter.
For such a short book, there is a lot on the bare facts of Blake’s life, who he knew and where he went. The things I was more familiar with such as his visions and his habit of conversing with spirits are hardly touched on. There is some attempt to place him into the philosophical and social context of the time (the sections on the influence and relative fashionableness of italian and greek art were illuminating) but it still could have used more. Overall it felt like it didn’t quite know what it wanted to be.
Of course, the text is largely secondary to the illustrations, which, even though the book is small, are absolutely wonderful — clear and vibrant. They reproduced tons of things I had never seen, such as his biblical illustrations, which are flat-out amazing. And Raine implicitly understands that the poetry and art are completely intertwined, one cannot be separated from the other. A poem like “the lamb” on its own reads as pretty sickly sweet, but when I saw it in its tiny, illuminated form at the Met last week with its beautiful, gentle illustrations and illuminations I nearly started sobbing. I’d like to read Frye’s Fearful Symmetry which is the most famous and influential Blake study but I was flipping through it at the library next to this one and it states in the first paragraph that it’s strictly going to analyze the poetry and not the art, which seems like such an elementary mistake.
Anyway, I’m still searching for the book that will really illuminate and contextualize Blake but visually this was of course a thing of profound beauty.
Colin Trodd’s intro talks about how Raine’s whole thing back in her era was pushing back against Marxist scholars like E.P. Thomson who read into Blake a critique of the Industrial Revolution and of Empire etc, and arguing for the purely mystical and theological bent of his work. She was a mystic too and a poet and a follower of Yeats (see, academics really did used to be more interesting). Now this seems like a completely false dichotomy to me - surely one can be both a social reformer and a mystic? It certainly seems wrong to cast Blake as nothing more than a particularly florid critic of empire (or to say that all the stuff about Orc and Urizen is just a disguised critique of the dark satanic mills etc) but it seems equally wrong to say he was only concerned with his own soul. I’m sure the question is handled with a bit more nuance in her two-volume, 800-page Blake and Tradition.
That being said this book was a bit uneven. It does have the quality you find in a lot of books written by academics for a general audience where they jump straight into analysis and forget to state the main idea they’re working with (like this book will refer to Blake’s weird cosmology as if you’re already familiar). But it’s usually either that or assuming that their mouthbreathing audience of dullards needs everything spoonfed to them in young adult fiction style (This is much more common in the modern age, someone like Reza Aslan is a good example.) so I suppose I prefer the latter.
For such a short book, there is a lot on the bare facts of Blake’s life, who he knew and where he went. The things I was more familiar with such as his visions and his habit of conversing with spirits are hardly touched on. There is some attempt to place him into the philosophical and social context of the time (the sections on the influence and relative fashionableness of italian and greek art were illuminating) but it still could have used more. Overall it felt like it didn’t quite know what it wanted to be.
Of course, the text is largely secondary to the illustrations, which, even though the book is small, are absolutely wonderful — clear and vibrant. They reproduced tons of things I had never seen, such as his biblical illustrations, which are flat-out amazing. And Raine implicitly understands that the poetry and art are completely intertwined, one cannot be separated from the other. A poem like “the lamb” on its own reads as pretty sickly sweet, but when I saw it in its tiny, illuminated form at the Met last week with its beautiful, gentle illustrations and illuminations I nearly started sobbing. I’d like to read Frye’s Fearful Symmetry which is the most famous and influential Blake study but I was flipping through it at the library next to this one and it states in the first paragraph that it’s strictly going to analyze the poetry and not the art, which seems like such an elementary mistake.
Anyway, I’m still searching for the book that will really illuminate and contextualize Blake but visually this was of course a thing of profound beauty.
November 28, 2019
In these book we find Kathleen Raine objective consideration of mysticism as manifested in the literature of major worldcreeds: Christianity, Sufism as the mystical phenomenon of Islam, Hinduism and Neoplatonism by Plotinus. Natural Mysticism is represented in William Blake's writings and has been very underrated ever since it's first publications. I dare to say whether mystical experience is one and the same, and whether the seemingly essential differences between its multiple forms are merely the result of preconceptions, as Rumi, the Sufi poet, claims in the following analogy:
Some Hindus brought an elephant, which they exhibited in a dark shed.
As seeing it with the eye was impossible, every one felt it with the palm of his hand.
The hand of one fell on its trunk, he said:
"This animal is like a water-pipe."
Another touched its ear: to him the creature seemed like a fan.
Another handled its leg and described the elephant as having the shape of a pillar.
Another stroked its back. 'Truly," said he, "this elephant resembles a throne."
Had each of them held a lighted candle, there would have been no contradiction in their words.
Many distinguished authors on the subject of mysticism hold that it is the same, while others, theologians in particular, make it exclusive to their own creeds. The aim is to deduce a reasonable definition of mysticism and to determine whether it is a mere subjective emotion, as Bertrand Russel believes, or instead what Kathleen Raine holds it to be: "Mysticism is not synonymous with vagueness, subjectivity and emotion; it is on the contrary, characterized by an arbitrary, harsh and difficult symbolism.
Mystical characteristics are also inferred from the survey of great mystics of all the traditions discussed in these interesting book. This aims to differentiate between mystical experience and non-mystical vision.
Some Hindus brought an elephant, which they exhibited in a dark shed.
As seeing it with the eye was impossible, every one felt it with the palm of his hand.
The hand of one fell on its trunk, he said:
"This animal is like a water-pipe."
Another touched its ear: to him the creature seemed like a fan.
Another handled its leg and described the elephant as having the shape of a pillar.
Another stroked its back. 'Truly," said he, "this elephant resembles a throne."
Had each of them held a lighted candle, there would have been no contradiction in their words.
Many distinguished authors on the subject of mysticism hold that it is the same, while others, theologians in particular, make it exclusive to their own creeds. The aim is to deduce a reasonable definition of mysticism and to determine whether it is a mere subjective emotion, as Bertrand Russel believes, or instead what Kathleen Raine holds it to be: "Mysticism is not synonymous with vagueness, subjectivity and emotion; it is on the contrary, characterized by an arbitrary, harsh and difficult symbolism.
Mystical characteristics are also inferred from the survey of great mystics of all the traditions discussed in these interesting book. This aims to differentiate between mystical experience and non-mystical vision.
November 24, 2022
I skimmed through this book until I felt I had enough understanding of Blake, his influences and his prevailing views on life. This copy was packed full of wonderful illustrations by Blake and great information.
July 20, 2025
Another excellent part of the Blake puzzle, focussing on the art. But Raine seems to get his spiritual side too, like no other writer (she's a poet). Blake: 'The Line of the Almighty'; The Imagination Jesus...'
February 27, 2019
Illuminating. A very intelligent analysis and history of an amazing individual. Painter, poet, mystic and beautiful individual.
September 3, 2020
cute little introduction to blake's life and works, with some nice images.
September 25, 2022
Index Colour and Black & White Pictures
March 6, 2023
Beautiful collection of plates in a paperback with an abundance of information about Blake's life and influences. Sometimes notably old-fashioned commentary is quaint.
August 24, 2023
I like some of his art, but as a human being he sounds insufferable. The book could do with more color plates.
September 3, 2024
A gorgeous and synthetic dissection of that incandescent light in Blake’s works that after all really is felt more than seen
July 2, 2018
Interesting book. I knocked a star off for the fact that some of the pictures are in black and white but overall a good read and good images.
September 9, 2020
William Blake always struck me as an interesting figure. I am one of those who first became familiar with the name through one Terence McKenna, sampled in some Shpongle track where the sample gave the album its name. Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost. Reading this book, which is obviously about him, confirmed that my interest is jusftified. He is most known for his art, but also wrote a lot of poetry. He incorporates a mythology of is own when he writes, an example being a demiurge kind of figure he named "Urizen" (if my memory serves me right that is) who shows up in quite a few of his paintings.
Though it didn't blow me out of the water, some parts seem to have had a lasting effect on me. These parts are also the ones I deemed to contain the highest degree of profundity. Though Blake may not have been the originator of such views, one that really struck a chord was the idea that the outside world are reflections of the inner world. The reader who continues down that thread in a personal adventure of the mind may conclude that if one's home is a mess, one's mind is too. And vice versa - if one's mind is a mess, one's home will be. Or office. Or whatever. The philosophical musings of Blake is something I clearly would have liked to see more of.
My main criticism of the book is that it was rather boring and didn't feel very modern in the way it's written. And maybe it isn't. I don't know what year it was published, but the English being used in it seems to be from the 50s or 60s. Even though the language is virtually identical, idiomatic expressions and the overall style of formulating oneself in writing appears to have changed enough to make reading older literature a bit less convenient. It simply requires more effort, and as much as I enjoy hard to digest literary monuments, I am a lazy motherfucker in the end who prefers his or her books to be easy to read. It's true.
3 illuminated works out of 5
Though it didn't blow me out of the water, some parts seem to have had a lasting effect on me. These parts are also the ones I deemed to contain the highest degree of profundity. Though Blake may not have been the originator of such views, one that really struck a chord was the idea that the outside world are reflections of the inner world. The reader who continues down that thread in a personal adventure of the mind may conclude that if one's home is a mess, one's mind is too. And vice versa - if one's mind is a mess, one's home will be. Or office. Or whatever. The philosophical musings of Blake is something I clearly would have liked to see more of.
My main criticism of the book is that it was rather boring and didn't feel very modern in the way it's written. And maybe it isn't. I don't know what year it was published, but the English being used in it seems to be from the 50s or 60s. Even though the language is virtually identical, idiomatic expressions and the overall style of formulating oneself in writing appears to have changed enough to make reading older literature a bit less convenient. It simply requires more effort, and as much as I enjoy hard to digest literary monuments, I am a lazy motherfucker in the end who prefers his or her books to be easy to read. It's true.
3 illuminated works out of 5
May 10, 2025
Incredibly inspiring book on one of the most influential artists to my own creative and spiritual philosophies. Such a treat to turn each page and read more about Blake, read more of Blake’s writing, and see more of his work. It makes me want to do a master study of his stuff. Strangely has me desiring to read the Bible as well. His engravings for the Book of Job in particular are blowing my mind as I’m writing this. I have a nuts potential idea utilizing them in the future…
July 13, 2019
Lavishly illustrated; Blake was both a graphic artist as well as a poet.
March 27, 2017
Excellent introduction to Blake focussing on his visionary outlook and system. Lots of good illustrations - I got a used copy online for 1p! As I am writing a book about Blake's Book of Job and Buddhism the more books I have for research the better.
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