The nature of William Blake's genius is most completely expressed in his Illuminated Books. As poet/artist Blake invented a method of printing that enabled him to create works in which words and images combine to form pages uniquely rich in content and beautiful in form. It is only through the pages as originally conceived and published by the poet himself that Blake's meaning can be fully experienced. 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 some 400 plates, drawn from the William Blake Trust's acclaimed six-volume Collected Edition, and reproduced under their supervision, provide for the first time ever in one volume what the London Review of Books hailed as 'sumptuous facsimiles...glorious coloured pages...like peeping into a furnace of light through a crack in the door'.
William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books (Illustrated)
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £7.76
Trade in William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £7.76, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Card, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more
|
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Amazon Review
There has never been an edition of Blake's illuminated books so handsome, its pages filled with images to pore over in utter absorption. David Erdmann's The Illuminated Blake is still in print, and very useful, but the reproductions in that edition are all black and white, where this is in glorious Technicolor. One thing this edition allows the reader to do is register the different scales of Blake's various books--to see, for instance, just how tiny are the pages of the Songs of Innocence and Experience, such that you can completely cover them with your hand, compared with the coffee-table-sized later works. This Thames and Hudson edition of The Complete Illuminated Books is large format, A4 size, which makes for a spacious white border around the smaller images, but allows the larger books to be shown off in all their glory. And glorious they are; a unique, extraordinary sequence of interwoven visual and textual compositions; Blake's distinctively muscular figures (looking, it must be said, oddly modern, as if they have all just stepped out of the gym) sprawl and bound between blocks and columns of printed words. One of the most striking things is the disjunction between words and images at the basic level of legibility. The pictures are direct, vibrant and lucid; visually extremely expressive. Of the colour images, all of them are beautiful, psychedelically hued compositions making use of energetic diagonals and spirals in their composition. Blake's words, on the other hand, are often extremely difficult to read; particularly in the later "prophetic" books. Page after page is filled with minute handwriting in sepia-orange or grey. Its not that Blake's handwriting is unclear, but rather that the sheer bulk of text baffles the eye, copied so neatly onto the marginless block of the page with an obsessive, detailed miniaturised aesthetic. The editors, recognising this, reprint the words in type at the back of the book. But above all this edition drives home the point that Blake cannot be regarded separately as poet or visual artist; these two elements are always fused and co-existing. This wonderful, beautiful book makes that point impressively. --Adam Roberts
Review
`A book to be treasured'
-- The Methodist Recorder
`Beautifully reproduces Blake's vibrant images . . . handsome'
-- The Art Newspaper
-- The Methodist Recorder
`Beautifully reproduces Blake's vibrant images . . . handsome'
-- The Art Newspaper
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
112 of 112 people found the following review helpful
By M. Harris
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
---
Once you begin to read Blakes original works (text and images together - as Blake intended), you'll wonder why you ever read text-only versions. This book is stunning. The quality of the prints is extremely good. Amazon's blurred preview pages do the book no justice. A minority of pages are faint or difficult to read, but this is no fault of the current publishers - blame William Blake! Transcripts of all the texts are included to clarify any illegibility, but are not usually needed as most of the pages are clear and bright.
Once you begin to read Blakes original works (text and images together - as Blake intended), you'll wonder why you ever read text-only versions. This book is stunning. The quality of the prints is extremely good. Amazon's blurred preview pages do the book no justice. A minority of pages are faint or difficult to read, but this is no fault of the current publishers - blame William Blake! Transcripts of all the texts are included to clarify any illegibility, but are not usually needed as most of the pages are clear and bright.
The editor's introduction to each illuminated book is brief. This allows the reader to dive straight into Blake's visionary world. Never mind if much of the text (especially of the later works) seems at first incomprehensible, Blake's illustrations are so vibrant and powerful on their own that they will keep you fascinated for a long time, and will help to cultivate a hungry curiosity that will eventually offer a way into his mysterious later texts. So what if you don't 'get it' ! Let go and just enter the mystery.
Having said this, many of Blake's earlier texts are much more easily accessible; 'All Religions Are One', 'There is no Natural Religion', 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell', 'The Gates of Paradise'. There is plenty here to offer a rich introduction to Blake's mythology and also to help prepare you for his later works.
This is Blake's 'Bible of Hell' and no household should be without a copy.
Here is a list of the illuminated book included:
* All Religions are One, (Plate 1 Keynes Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum,.
... Read more ›62 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Blake was a visionary and a genius, a man who truly saw angels walking among men, and a man in whose powerful imagination London became Jerusalem. Blake was one of the most interesting characters of the 18th and 19th centuries, and lived in some of the most tumultuous times of the last thousand years. To truly appreciate Blake, you need to be able to see his illustrations along with his poetry, for Blake was not only a poet, he was also an artist. As I am studying Blake in my English class I can tell you that this is an incredibly worthwhile edition. The reproductions are fantastic; and include some rare plates in their full coloured glory. The volume tells you which edition of the plates are being reproduced (for Blake hand-made and hand-coloured each one individually and so every one is a little bit different), there is a brief introduction to each poem/collection allowing you to place it in context and also included are some of the "alternate" plates - plates found to exist in one version, but not another.
The size of the book allows you to view the plates as they should be viewed; hence, the smaller plates such as those of "Songs of Innocence and Experience" are reproduced to size but you the larger plates are also reproduced at a good size, allowing you to fully appreciate the work. It contains an excellent timeline and also a transcription of all the poems at the back of the book which is highly useful as sometimes, particularly with the smaller plates, Blake's writing can be rather small making it difficult to make out some words or phrases.
This really is a wonderful volume.... Read more ›
The size of the book allows you to view the plates as they should be viewed; hence, the smaller plates such as those of "Songs of Innocence and Experience" are reproduced to size but you the larger plates are also reproduced at a good size, allowing you to fully appreciate the work. It contains an excellent timeline and also a transcription of all the poems at the back of the book which is highly useful as sometimes, particularly with the smaller plates, Blake's writing can be rather small making it difficult to make out some words or phrases.
This really is a wonderful volume.... Read more ›
33 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I came across William Blake a while back and i find his works inspirational! The colour and imagination put into each of his paintings coupled with the beauty of his poetry combine to create a wonderous final interpretation of his ideas and mythology. This book makes it easy for anyone to appreciate Blake's work by providing large full colour copies of his writing. A must buy for anyone how is interested in Blake's writing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This astonishing book contains high calibre facsimiles of William Blake's many engravings and sketches. A vast quantity of work, covering his entire career, is faithfully reproduced. The quality of the book is most impressive, with heavy glossy pages, crisp images, and vibrant colours. There's some interesting critical apparatus provided by David Bindman, but the real appeal lies in the scope of Blake's own imagination. It's fascinating to see his art develop in step with his poetry, from the simple drawings made to accompany the 'Songs of Innocence', through to the spectacular mythicism of 'The Four Zoas' and 'Jerusalem'. This is a hefty tome, and not cheap, but I think the quality and range of work reproduced here more than justifies the expense. It's a real plum-pudding of a book - one that can be dipped into with undiminished pleasure over many years. It would also make a fetching coffee table book (although you might need to reinforce the legs first). Highly recommended.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Absolutely superb text containing William Blake's original copperplate designs; many of which are companion to his seminal poetry collection: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The book is extremely hefty, but if you like Blake's poetry or are studying it, then this is an invaluable tome for you.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 25 reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit disappointing as the reproductions were so small. I
The reproductions were so small, I would have like them to cover the whole screen of my kindle. I tried making them bigger without success.
Published 22 days ago by Mrs T. E. Spice
5.0 out of 5 stars
d
all good 28 words or more x v b b n h g f d s a r ew qo p l
Published 1 month ago by Toni Taylor-Munn
3.0 out of 5 stars
William Blake
I was a bit disappointed by this book, it would be nice to have the illustration and the clear wording on the same page
Published 2 months ago by Miss Sharon Alce
4.0 out of 5 stars
Illuminated works made for eBooks
I've just bought a Kindle Fire HD and this was one of the first things I wanted to see and read on it. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Rod Tweedy
5.0 out of 5 stars
I can't begin to praise Blake and this collection enough
Buy this. If you are interested in Literature, in liberalism, in freedom and liberty. Don't buy a game, don't buy food, don't buy clothes BUY THIS. Honestly. Read more
Published 7 months ago by DJ Valentine
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing!
'The Complete Illuminated Books' by William Blake is one of the best editions so far. Colorful plats and a great introduction by David Bindman.
Published 13 months ago by Victoria Zaborov
5.0 out of 5 stars
William Blake's Illuminated works
A fantastic book. It has all of Blake's colour plates in colour. The only drawback with this book is that the colour prints for songs of innocence and of experience are a bit... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Janus Jensen
5.0 out of 5 stars
So good
This book is so good its hard to contain exactly how good this book is. If your looking for a meditation source for Blake either for art or for religion I can't recommend it... Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2010 by Mr. D. J. Seymour
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
