Experimental feature: Order William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.

               

Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.7
EAN: 9780500282458
ISBN: 0500282455
Label: Thames & Hudson
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 480
Publication Date: 2001-04
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Studio: Thames & Hudson

In his Illuminated Books, William Blake combined text and imagery on a single page in a way that had not been done since the Middle Ages. For Blake, religion and politics, intellect and emotion, mind and body were both unified and in conflict with each other: his work is expressive of his personal mythology, and his methods of conveying it were integral to its meaning. There is no comparison with reading books such as Jerusalem, America, and Songs of Innocence and of Experience in Blake's own medium, infused with his sublime and exhilarating colors. Tiny figures and forms dance among the lines of the text, flames appear to burn up the page, and dense passages of Biblical-sounding text are brought to a jarring halt by startling images of death, destruction, and liberation. Blake's hope that his books would obtain wide circulation was unfulfilled: some exist only in unique copies and none was printed in more than very small numbers. Now, for the first time, the plates from the William Blake Trust's Collected Edition have been brought together in a single volume, with transcripts of the texts and an introduction by the noted scholar David Bindman. A major retrospective exhibition of Blake's work can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (March-June 2001). 400 color illustrations.

Includes:
Jerusalem
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
All Religions are One
There is No Natural Religion
The Book of Thel
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Visions of the Daughters of Albion
America a Prophecy
Europe a Prophecy
The Song of Los
Milton a Poem
The Ghost of Abel
On Homers Poetry [and] On Virgil
Laocoon
The First Book of Urizen
The Book of Ahania
The Book of Los

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Pictures of his work are too small and only of his books.
Review: Where is a good book on Blake that has color large reproductions of his actual paintings and not just his illuminated books?? Sigh. I love Blake, but am not happy with this book so I returned it.

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: the original illuminated books
Review: 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.

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Clothing, please.
Review: The writing is fine, but naked people? No, it's not penthouse by any stretch of the imagination, but I still won't have this book about my house with children!

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Both the words & vision of a prophetic soul on fire
Review: 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!

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The ultimate book!
Review: 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.

---

---