Customer Reviews

The Illuminated Blake: William Blake's Complete Illuminated Works with a Plate-by-Plate Commentary

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The only possible complaints that one could have with this book are 1)there is no color reproduction and 2)it is a softcover. However these same factors contribute to the wonderfully low price as a hardcover, full-color reproduction would bring it into the price range of the Princeton Blake. I must make a reference to one of the other reviews and say that in contradiction to the reader from Portugal's review this edition DOES contain all the Illuminated works with the exception of the one page work The Laocoon which is not exactly one of the illuminated works. Erdman's commentary is excellent, as is to be expected from one of the three major Blake scholars of the twentieth century. This commentary makes the book a value even if one already owns the Princeton series.

I used this book for the illustrations in my thesis on Blake. Although they are not in color, the sharp, black lines of the drawings accentuate a side of Blake that is often overlooked. That being his obstinate adherence to the "True Style of Art. The Art of Invention Not of Imitation." The Art of the "straight & wirey bounding line." All of the illuminated books are included in this volume, with commentary on each plate. This is an excellent book for the burgeoning Blake scholar. In fact, I used this book to make a photocopy of plate 10 from America a Prophecy for the tatoo I had carved on my right arm. I had the tatoo artist add the color from the Princeton editions of the illuminated books, which are the very best copies of Blake available if you can afford them.

I think this is an excellent edition of Blake's work. Although the title says "William Blake's Complete Illuminated Works" I have to state here that there are many other, mostly unpublished, paintings and illuminated printings of Blake, but this book has all the most known of Blake's Works and some of the lesser known: All Religions are one, There is no Natural Religion, The Book of Thel, Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Visions of The Daughters of Albion, America a Prophecy, Europe a Prophecy, The Song of Los, The Book of Urizen, The Book of Ahania, The Book of Los, Milton a Poem, The gates of Paradise, Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion, On Homers Poetry and On Virgil, The Ghost of Abel, including some variants of some plates. Almost all of the plates are reproduced in the original size with extreme quality. I only regret that they are all black-and-white printings, because the fiery, vivid colours used by Blake make them even more fantastic than they seem in this book. Despite being quite unknown in Portugal I consider William Blake to be one of the greatest artists of all time. His writing is poetic, dream-like, speaking of mythical places with their pathetic gods, angels, gigantic eagles and serpents, and a beautiful Satan teaching knowdlege and poetry: a strange realm that is supposed to be an esoteric version of our own reality. Blake's age was a revolutionary turmoil in every way, just like our end of century, and we can see that in his powerful writing. There was a French revolution that forewarned of a new age and the fall from grace of the powerful ancient lords who ruled the people with an iron hand, the american colonies burst out of the chains of their European masters and new wonders of science marvelled the peoples. Blake sings violently of the strength of Freedom within every free spirit and despises those who believe in a God that made the world a sad, ghastly cage for men: that is Urizen, an old blind and selfish Tyrant-god, destined to fall at the end of Time, consumed in its own weaknesses and emptiness. Blake is an ancient bard singing of Nature's pleasures against the new religions stupid grimness. Only Joy and Happiness are Holy. Imagination is the souls' ultimate voice. What can I say of the paintings? In fact there is no separation between images and words, which intertwine themselves in an awesome mystical graphic story. His style is incredibly detailed: you will find very small drawings of eagles, beasts, lizards and men everywhere, chaising things, trying to reach each other or running in chaotic terror. I think this is the real stuff that dreams and nightmares are made of. No reason, no explaining, just pure unhuman sorcery drowning your mortal senses. In a certain way, Blake preceded surrealism, comics and even caricatures. David Erdman exibits great scholarship in explaining the symbolic meanings of the images and the strange gods and beings painted in the plates. Believe me, he comments every minor detail. But I think that for those like me who still don't know much about Blake's works, he could well have done a small chapter explainig the events and entities portrayed in Blake's stories in a more general view, instead of doing small, dispersed references to it. I also leave here an advise for other Blake entusiasts: the latest album of Bruce Dickinson (IronMaiden's former vocalist), "The Chemical Wedding" is one great album and is entirely inspired in Blake's work. Just listen to the magical music in your ears! Blake's ideology reaches deep into your mind, revealing men's strongest and deadliest desires. Man may be jailed within cells of iron or gold, but he is still free to dream. I pity those that forgot even how to dream, because for them Liberty is forever lost in the shadows of disbelief: "Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained. The road of excels leads to the palace of wisdom.

Prudence is a rich ugly maid courted by Incapacity. No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own winges. Shame is Prides cloke. Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion. And all this Vegetable World appeared on my left Foot as a bright sandal formd immortal of precious stones & gold: I stooped down & bounded it on to walk forward thro' Eternity."

16th of April, 1999

David W. Erdman has managed to describe the details in Blake's drawings, for William Blake's Complete Illuminated Works with a Plate-by-Plate Commentary, but the text which is the main feature of most of Blake's plates is sometimes faint, and occasionally unclear. Due to the comment in BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG, on the source of its subtitle, Opposition Is True Friendship, about plate 20 of Blake's MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, that:

"beneath this `reptile of the mind,' partially obscured by Blake's thick patina of watercolor pigments in several copies of this hand-painted book, is Blake's final comment on his battle with Swedenborg's angelic alter ego:

Opposition is true Friendship." (Harvey F. Bellin, BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG, p. 38).

The detail which is shown on page 38 of BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG looks more like "Opposition is True !"

Page 117 of Erdman's THE ILLUMINATED BLAKE has a copy of Plate 20, copy I, which hardly even shows the T of True, and a small detail from Copy E with the words "you whose works" just before the last line "are only Analytics," so the little extra squiggle that it provides might be a subliminal comment by Blake on those who think we have the power to explain anything. The drawing of the serpent is ambiguous enough that Erdman's comment, "In I the artist has carelessly colored the angular wave seen through the first loop as though it were part of the serpent's body," (p. 117) might be an indication that Blake intended to show a bit of the tail of the serpent close to the serpent's head, symbolic of logic biting its own tail, or arguments which are circular in nature. As a wave, it looks more like the serpent than the other waves, though the black and white illustrations in both books are not entirely clear, Erdman's book has better shades of gray.

Comparing plates of "The Divine Image," SONGS 18g on page 59 in Erdman's book, with the copy on page 88 of BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG, Erdman's is clearer, but page 88 of BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG also prints the words ("To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love") alongside the illustration, so it is easier to read. Erdman's attempts to explain the figures make this plate more interesting, mentioning Lazarus? Adam? Eve? and Jacob's ladder.

There is a "Holy Thursday" from Innocence, SONGS 19I on page 60, and a "Holy Thursday" from Experience, SONGS 33I on page 75. The big disappointment is that "The Tyger," SONGS 42I on page 84 is so difficult to read. I thought that I might remember that poem, but hardly well enough to read it in this book.

I wish I would have read a few reviews before purchasing this. There was nothing in the description or in the material available from the "Look Inside" feature that indicated the "meticulously reproduced plates" (quote from the back cover) were presented in black and white.

Not only is the lack of color a negative, but the quality of the b&w reproductions is probably only a 7 out of 10. Further, the plate-by-plate commentary includes mention of colors in the plates which the reader will not be able to observe in the b&w reproductions presented. Kind of pointless and not very "illuminating".

I should have known this would have black and white pics on cheap paper. It's inexpensive and looks it. Okay for the money but I don't recommend it.