Customer Reviews

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Oxford Paperbacks)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Please disregard some of the other reviews of this product as they have been transferred by Amazon.com to this product when they were written for another product -- no fault of the reviewers. Amazon.com does not currently recognize the need for different reviews of different editions of the same work. This review is of the edition of William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell published by U Chicago Press (2011) for the Bodelian library and edited by Michael Phillips. Some of these other reviews really need to be deleted as they are completely irrelevant to this specific product. I will be writing here about the hardcover edition. I have not yet seen a copy of the paperback edition.

This beautiful and professionally-bound U Chicago edition of MHH appears to be a cover to cover facsimile of the Bodelian's copy of Marriage of Heaven and Hell. I mean "cover to cover" quite literally: the image posted here as the cover is a full-color photographic reproduction of a nineteenth-century binding, wear marks and all. Upon opening the book you will find a full-color reproduction of the inside cover, handwriting, bookstamp, and all. The next page -- which is a blank page in the original -- is again reproduced exactly, water stains and all. What you will be purchasing with this edition, then, is an exact reproduction of Copy B of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell from cover to cover, with the addition of Phillips's extensive introduction, textual transcription, notes, commentary, a checklist of copies, and bibliography. There's simply nothing like it; not even the edition published by the William Blake Trust for the Illuminated Books series. Owning this book is as close to owning an original copy of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell as you can get.

The William Blake Archive does have Copy B of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell online with a textual transcription, so you can preview the specific contents of the reproductions there. This edition, however -- being a full, cover to cover reproduction of the book owned by the Bodelian -- includes several additional plates that aren't part of the same sequence of images available on the Blake archive website (though probably available by selecting the individual plate and clicking "compare"). These additional images include several different copies of what is Plate 14 in the Bodelian copy with alternate copies of a few other plates from the MHH (such as A Song of Liberty and one of the Memorable Fancies), and a copy of "Our End is Come" preceding the text of MHH. You can read more details about Copy B of the MHH on the William Blake Archive website.

Overall, well worth the price and a good purchase even if you already own the William Blake Trust's edition. I think this volume represents the future of Blake publishing: professional facsimile editions of each individual copy.

Good grief -- the other reviewers of this book clearly did not buy it, but are arguing about Blake's theology and using this Website to do it.

I have no comment on the poem. It needs no defense and has fully established itself in Western culture.

But as for the *book*, the object you hold in your hands and look at, I do have a few words. This is a very poorly produced, poorly bound, amateurishly laid out book containing appalling reproductions of the art. It was pretty obviously created in Microsoft Word and bound at the equivalent of a Kinko's. For twenty bucks you can do a lot better. I'm returning my edition.

I fail to see how whether or not this book is contradictory to the bible is any indictation of whether it is good or not.

This was considered the work of a mad man when it was first published, I would compare it to dante's inferno in places, the art work was breakthruough for its time. I think it is the work of a man way ahead of his time. Written when revolution was in the air, it is still revelant today.

As far as the ideas in this book contradicting the bible; that particular opinion is completely wrong. The only way one could think so is to have missed the fact that the entire book is a viciously ironic and satirical commentary on those who would claim to represent Christianity while in actuality profaning it. Only the "angels" miss this fact. And as far as C.S. Lewis is concerned, he is as weak when reading Blake as he is when reading Milton.

The other reviewers are missing the point. Blake did not believe in the Christian ideology enought to want to contradict the bible. He believed that god is a construction of the human imagination, the Poetic Genius (read "All Relgions are One" and "There is no Natural Religion"). To speak in terms of religiosity, he had to use Christian terminology (Ezekial, Isiah, Satan...) because the language of religion was created this way, and Blake was forced to speak in those terms before developing his own language system. The bible contradicts itself; Blake's writing and thinking transcend that superficial level.

"The Great Divorce" wasn't Lewis's "response" to Blake. Even Lewis was smart enough to admit that he wasn't anywhere near Blake's level. Read his introduction to that book again.

As the title says it's a bare bones treatment of this work of art. I give it three stars because it lacks the illustrations other than that it's fine it just should be free and not $1.05 but you could do worse... This is regarding the Kindle edition. Still if you like the poem it's worth the price just to have it on this great device.

Many of the ideas in this book are very contradicting to the bible however he does bring up some good points. Read C.S. Lewis' responce to this book entiteled "The Great Divorce".

Many of the ideas in this book are very contradicting to the bible. Read C.S. Lewis' responce to this book "The Great Divorce".