Customer Reviews

William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book brings the words and images of Blake to brilliant life. The volume is gorgeous, and the colors extremely rich. Having read Blake's poetry in un-illuminated format before, I now am even more appreciative of the value of seeing the work as Blake originally intended. Blake is a marvelous poet and artist, and this collection of his illuminated work is a marvelous book.

While many people are familiar with William Blake's poetry, if only through the handful of commonly anthologized short poems from grade school & high school English classes, this is how his work was meant to be experienced: the poetry in union with the art, creating a vision far greater & more deeply moving than the sum of its already impressive parts. The words literally flow, twine, blossom in vivid & startling color, woven into the intricate, symbolic artwork. There aren't enough superlatives for this edition, which enables everyone to finally see & feel the Universe as Blake did: ablaze with power, wonder, beauty, horrors, and the godlike beings of the human psyche, titantic aspects transcending any neat, pre-packaged psychological or symbolic labels. For anyone wanting insight into the soul of Western civilization over the past few centuries, the soul in which we all struggle to find meaning & purpose now, this volume is absolutely essential. Most highly recommended!

Valuable things are not easy; easy things are not valuable. I don't know if that's a quotation from the Tao-Te Ching, but it ought to be. William Blake's longer poems, the so-called Prophetic Books, are legendary in their difficulty. Each of the two great epics, "Milton" and "Jerusalem", is a world in itself, taking years or decades to explore. Everyone who has made the effort considers it time well spent.

Blake wasn't shy about the importance of his own work. In a letter he described "Milton" as "the Grandest Poem this World Contains". But these immense, unique hand-engraved, hand-coloured cosmic-spiritual epics found no buyers in Blake's own lifetime. Only one coloured copy of "Jerusalem" is known to exist.

The Illuminated Books have been reproduced in colour before, but this is the first time all the plates have been printed full-size in a single book. Blake is fascinating even in black-and-white, but to read these books in the form intended means entering a new world. By depicting spiritual principles as People, Blake shows us the meaning of all ancient gods.

After the lyrics of the "Songs of Innocence and "Songs of Experience", the best place to start is the "Book of Thel", then the "Visions of the Daughters of Albion". When reading the long books, a plain text copy of the "Complete Poems" will come in handy: difficulty in reading Blake's graceful orange script for "Jerusalem" may be one difficulty too many. The remaining shorter books, with their anguished mythical narratives, rely more than the others on their illustrations, printed as if with fire, rust and soot: images of an age of Revolution.

Blake's aim was nothing less than "to open the immortal Eyes/ Of Man into the Worlds of Thought, into Eternity/ Ever expanding in the Bosom of God, the Human Imagination". Astonishingly this is not exaggeration nor plain craziness: he can actually do this.
If a book I admire gets five stars, this one deserves fifteen. It's a marvel, a rectangular treasure, one of the most precious books ever printed.

The plates included in the "Complete Illuminated Books" are not enhanced or magnified at all to the detriment of the eager reader. While seeing Blake's images as they were printed is certainly beautiful, reading the handwritten text is nearly impossible as the handwriting is either far too small or in some cases, not clear at all. True, the full text of each "illuminated book" is printed in the back, but this is hardly convenient and to read the text along with the accompanying image is nearly impossible as the text is reprinted in its entirety as opposed to page by page.

A fine book for the coffee table but those interested in getting the full experience of the illuminated works should look elsewhere.

Simply magnifying some of the smaller plates or reprinting the corresponding text on the opposite page would have completely solved this problem and made "The Complete Illuminated Books" a must-own rather than an I-wish-I-hadn't-bought-this!

William Blake has changed the way poetry and art interact. He believed that art and poetry will never be complete as long as they are presented one without the other. That's why he was an artist as much as he was a poet. By the way, his contemporaries did not acknowledge him as a poet!

This book brings a rich and wonderful collection of his original works. And for those who do not like handwriting, there is a complete typed version of all the poems at the end of the book.

Besides all that, what I really like about this book, and William in general, is his love for children. I firmly believe that he is the first children books' writer!!! What is a children book? A long poem divided in several illustrated pages.

Buy yourself a copy, this book is worth a lot.

I certainly appreciate how much work must have gone into creating this book and it certainly was a product of love and attention to detail. My disappointment lies in the technical, mundane things. Reproducing Blake's work at the original size means that there is a lot of wasted page space and it's kinda hard to read. He hand-wrote all the text in his books and, while beautiful in its own right, my myopic little eyes have a hard time sussing out the actual words. The editors of this book helpfully include a type-written transcript of his poetry and prose... at the back of the book. There are a few pages where the text is transcripted onto the page below the original copy, but I feel that it should have been done for most of the book, since the "actual size" images leave a lot of white space that isn't utilized. Also, and this has nothing to do with the book itself, I didn't do enough research as to the contents, but there aren't any of his stand-alone paintings or his illustrations for "The Divine Comedy." This is certainly a comprehensive book, just not what I was looking for.

This beautiful paperback volume consists of high quality reproductions of Blake's original illustrated books. It is an incredible bargain. The pictures are powerful and Blake intended the pictures and the texts to illumine each other. I've never disciplined myself to sit down and read the text from the engraved script; its not easy or natural since the print on many plates is small and faint; but it would be worth the effort. However, there is a type face version of all the poems in the back, to refer to when needed to make out a word. This is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand Blake's profound prophetic vision more deeply.

William Blake - a genius before his time - created powerful words and images. Reading his works, and studying his pictures, will have a positive effect on your ability to design and communicate. Since purchasing this book, I've found increased attention to details, ways to eliminate clutter, a better ability to write succinctly and creative ways of looking at problems. I recommend this book for all readers wishing to improve their communication, design and creative skills. You won't be disappointed.

My only comlaint about this book is the choice of copy for some of the poems. Thanks to the Blake Archive, we are able to compare copies of the various poems, and some of them are much more beautiful than the ones included here. Of course, there is only one color copy of Jerusalem, and it alone makes the book worth it.

He loves it a lot. I have nothing else to say about this except my son in law reall, really really loves the book.