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Blake
 
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Blake (Paperback)

by Peter Ackroyd (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Blake + William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books + Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (Oxford Paperbacks)
Price For All Three: £30.49

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Product details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (3 Jan 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0749391766
  • ISBN-13: 978-0749391768
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.6 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 23,494 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #5 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > A > Ackroyd, Peter
    #9 in  Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > Georgian to Victorian: 1701-1900
    #17 in  Books > Biography > Historical > 1701-1900

Product Description

Product Description

Poet, painter, engraver and visionary, Blake's was a radical spirit fired by genius. Yet his life has remained an enigma. In this magnificent biography Peter Ackroyd discloses the true nature of William Blake's life and art.


About the Author

Peter Ackroyd is a prize-winning writer of fiction and non fiction. Almost all his novels are historical novels: he has a unique gift for conjuring lives and characters from the past. Hawksmoor won the Guardian fiction prize, and Chatterton (also about forgery) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has written brief lives of Chaucer, Turner and Newton, and major biographies of T.S. Eliot, Dickens, Blake, Thomas More and - most recently - Shakespeare. He holds a CBE for services to literature and lives in London.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Even-handed and insightful, 29 Mar 2001
By A Customer
This is well worth a read. The reader may gain a greater insight into Blake from the events of his life, which are relayed in detail. And furthermore from Ackroyd's empathetic and even-handed treatment of Blake the man, who one feels, will always be more than the sum of his actions. Particularly good for those who only know Blake the poet rather than the painter, the illustrations and engravings are given lots of attention and there are quite a few pictures to view.
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40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A lyrical and entrancing portrait of an enduring genius, 8 Aug 2005
By S. Gardiner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Blake's prophetic books are, in proportion to their length and literary importance, amongst the least read texts within the body of English Literature. Certainly, they are the least understood.

This is partly because of the notion, common today as it was amongst Blake's contemporaries, that the poet-artist was, at best, an ultrasensitive whose work was not consciously or methodically thought out but merely reflected his changeable mood at the time of writing. Either that or he was a lunatic, and his work the ramblings of a lunatic; this view is, unfortunately, still common today.

Ackroyd's examination of Blake's life is important in that it aids in expelling this illusion, both by relating the nature of Blake's time and place to the artist's output, and by being willing to engage Blake on his own ground. For example, Ackroyd at times willingly entertains the veracity of Blake's frequent visions, which is an engaging angle for the reader seeking to penetrate fully into Blake's world (and an attitude less likely to be found in a more academic study). At others, he substitutes the notion that Blake's imaginative faculties were of such a magnitude as to invade his ocular sense: he literally saw what he fancied. Either way, Blake is far from a madman and closer to a genius; consequently, one can feel the grain of his life - as he lived it - passing under the fingertips as they turn the pages.

This biography is that rare thing amongst its kind that allows the reader to engage with the subject's life, as well as observe it; at times, it allows moments of genuine love for the pugnacious Londoner who remains so little understood. Alone, it will not grant an understanding of Blake's poetry or art, particularly his prophetic works; this is not Ackroyd's intention. Rather, it allows a reader (or, more accurately, 'the viewer') of Blake's work, either experienced or virginal, to approach them with the attention, engagement and willingness to understand that they both require and deserve.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Innocent World, 15 May 2009
By Barney McGrew "Charlie" (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
Peter Ackroyd is clearly passionate about his subject matter, and for students of William Blake or those simply seeking further context for his poetry this is ideal. Accessible and not even faintly patronising; the text is comprehensive and coherent.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars William, It Was Really Nothing
William Blake must present a unique challenge to a would-be biographer: It is not that nothing happend to the great poet and artist, on the contrary, he met and conversed with... Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. J. O'neill

4.0 out of 5 stars William Blake by Ackroyd
BlakePeter Ackroyd writes well and succinctly which make his sentences easy to grasp. He uses previous biographical material extensively including Gilchrist and makes his text... Read more
Published 5 months ago by M. Brendan Flanagan

1.0 out of 5 stars A difficult vision to master
I found this book just too dificult. It is chock full of references to the life around Blake but says little about the man himself. Ditto with references to his work. Read more
Published 8 months ago by mary C. Irving

3.0 out of 5 stars a little too fawning to its subject matter
I have really enjoyed Ackroyd's writing in the past. His London Biography, in particular, is an outstanding book. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2003 by O. Buxton

3.0 out of 5 stars Good on Blake, down on style
Ackroyd has a grand reputation as an auteur superbe, but in this book he finds himself to close to the subject to allow his normal objectivity to flow. Read more
Published on 26 Feb 2001 by trevormacp@hotmail.com

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