Complete Writings with Variant Readings (Oxford Standard Authors Series) [Paperback]

William Blake (Author), Sir Geoffrey Keynes (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0192810502 | ISBN-13: 978-0192810502 | Publication Date: December 31, 1966 | Edition: 2nd

This edition includes almost all Blake's substantive variants with the exception of some in the exceptionally complex manuscript of Vala, or the Four Zoas.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An edition of Blake edited with extraordinary attention to detail. Essential."--Norman Weinstein, Boise State University

"For students and scholars alike Sir Geoffrey's edition of the Complete Writings remains the most readily accessible of all reliable collections of Blake."--George Mills Harper, Florida State University

Product Details

• Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2nd edition (December 31, 1966)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192810502
• ISBN-13: 978-0192810502
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #652,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Edition!, February 7, 2001

By 

Susanne Sklar (Shimer College, Waukegan IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Writings with Variant Readings (Oxford Standard Authors Series) (Paperback)

Mr. Keynes' edition of Blake's complete poetry and prose is the one I've used not only at Shimer College, but also in Russia and China when I taught Blake there. Mr. Keynes arranges Blake's writings chronologically. The reader can thus more clearly see how Blake's mythic system evolves. Clarity matters when a reader falls into a universe as visionary and fluid as William Blake's.

Each poem is a like a magical brick in the mystical structure Blake ultimately builds. His work begins in Innocence, a world where science, imagination, love, and wild beasts blithely dance in balance. When the cruelty, greed, and fears of Experience blight the peaceable kingdoms then society and the human soul split into warring factions.

Blake has been called apocalyptic. In his late great prophetic books families, lovers, societies, and the ecosystem fall to bits. But Los, Blake's heroic artist, "keeps the divine vision in times of trouble." Techno-science and institutionalized greed overshadow the earth, but Los keeps on building Golgonooza, the gorgeous city of art which ultimately connects heaven and earth. This can bring Jerusalem (the feminine divine)back into the heart of Albion (the universal humanity). When the feminine divine suffuses masculine power all things coalesce in a cosmic orgasm of art, science, pleasure, and prayer. "There is no body distinct from the soul!" Mr. Blake proclaimed in his Marriage of Heaven & Hell. "Everything that lives is Holy!" cries Oothoon, whose indestructible purity embraces the love that's "free as the mountain wind." She's become a role model for some exuberant Shimer students.

To truly partake of Blake please treat yourself to at least a few of the full-color illustrated editions that are now wonderfully affordable. The Dover editions are a bargain--but I order the Blake Trust (Princeton University Press) editions for my classes as well as Sir Geoffrey Keynes' lovingly edited Complete Writings. Buy this book! It can bring you bliss!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the Blake I chose to buy, January 4, 2004

By 

A. Lowry (Madison, MS United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete Writings with Variant Readings (Oxford Standard Authors Series) (Paperback)

While Sir Geoffrey Keynes (brother of "that other Keynes") did a much-lauded service with this edition, wary readers should note that the punctuation is deliberately "corrected" by the editor. The Erdman and Ostriker editions at least attempt to give you what Blake wrote. Insofar as, in the illuminated works, the punctuation was Blake's own and not that of a drunken compositor, that seems an important consideration.

(I went with the Erdman; the Penguin's notes are better in many ways, glosses rather than commentary, but Penguin books are so damn shoddy these days, & the Erdman is published as a book that'll bear some reading without falling apart. Look at the old 2dhand Penguins in used-book shops; few of today's Penguins will survive so long, I fear.)

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blake-You need it, February 17, 2000

By 

P. Ortman (Midwest) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete Writings with Variant Readings (Oxford Standard Authors Series) (Paperback)

William Blake is one of the most underrated writers of all time. He is also a wonderful visual artist. Unlike his contemporaries, such as Milton, he created his own Mythology. A complex heirarchy of preternatural beings. Many people have spent years trying to piece together the puzzle of his complex philosophy. Any fan of enlish literature, and desire to be challeged by a writer gifted not only in meter, but also in content will be sad that they had not read Blake sooner. He comes very highly recommended. He affects the way you think. I close with his words: "Forth from the dead dust, rattling bones to bones/ Join; shaking convuls'd, the shiv'ring clay breathes,/ And all naked flesh stands: Fathers and Friends,/ Mothers & Infants, Kings & Warriors."