William Blake: A Literary Life PDF
Preview William Blake: A Literary Life
Literary Lives Founding Editor: Richard Dutton, Professor of English, Lancaster University This series offers stimulating accounts of the literary careers of the most admired and influential English-language authors. Volumes follow the outline of the writers’ working lives, not in the spirit of traditional biography, but aiming to trace the professional, publishing and social contexts which shaped their writing. Published titles include: Clinton Machann Harold Pagliaro MATTHEW ARNOLD HENRY FIELDING Jan Fergus Andrew Hook JANE AUSTEN F. SCOTT FITZGERALD John Beer Mary Lago WILLIAM BLAKE E. M. FORSTER Tom Winnifrith and Edward Chitham Shirley Foster CHARLOTTE AND EMILY BRONTË ELIZABETH GASKELL Sarah Wood Neil Sinyard ROBERT BROWNING GRAHAM GREENE Janice Farrar Thaddeus James Gibson FRANCES BURNEY THOMAS HARDY Caroline Franklin Cristina Malcolmson BYRON GEORGE HERBERT Nancy A. Walker Gerald Roberts KATE CHOPIN GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS Roger Sales Kenneth Graham JOHN CLARE HENRY JAMES Cedric Watts W. David Kaye JOSEPH CONRAD BEN JONSON Grahame Smith Phillip Mallett CHARLES DICKENS RUDYARD KIPLING George Parfitt John Worthen JOHN DONNE D. H. LAWRENCE Paul Hammond William Gray JOHN DRYDEN ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Kerry McSweeney Angela Smith GEORGE ELIOT KATHERINE MANSFIELD Tony Sharpe Lisa Hopkins T. S. ELIOT CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE Cedric C. Brown Tony Sharpe JOHN MILTON WALLACE STEVENS Peter Davison Joseph McMinn GEORGE ORWELL JONATHAN SWIFT Linda Wagner-Martin Leonée Ormond SYLVIA PLATH ALFRED TENNYSON Felicity Rosslyn Peter Shillingsburg ALEXANDER POPE WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY Ira B. Nadel David Wykes EZRA POUND EVELYN WAUGH Richard Dutton Caroline Franklin WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT John Williams John Mepham MARY SHELLEY VIRGINIA WOOLF Michael O’Neill John Williams PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Gary Waller Alasdair D. F. Macrae EDMUND SPENSER W. B. YEATS Literary Lives Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–71486–5 hardcover Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–80334–5 paperback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England This page intentionally left blank William Blake: A Literary Life John Beer © John Beer 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-3954-8 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-54682-0 ISBN 978-0-230-55486-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-55486-3 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beer,John B. William Blake :a literary life / John Beer. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.Blake,William,1757–1827.2.Poets,English – 18th century – Biography.3.Poets,English – 19th century – Biography.4.Artists – Great Britain – Biography.I.Title. PR4146.B34 2005 821(cid:2).7—dc22 2005043355 [B] 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 Contents List of Figures vii Preface ix Abbreviations xi 1. Rescuing the Human Spirit 1 2. Traces of Tradition? 16 3. Through Satire to Innocence 29 4. Love, Marriage and Sexual Lore 41 5. Finding a Voice for Experience 53 6. The Challenge of Energy 69 7. Thinking Allegorically, Imaging Symbolically 87 8. ‘Vala’ and the Fate of Narrative Epic 109 9. ‘A Slumber on the banks of the Ocean’ 122 10. Fragmentary Modes of Epic 139 11. Years of Resentment, Hints of Paradox 159 12. A Persisting Visionary 177 13. Prophetic Afterlife 206 Notes 221 Select Bibliography 235 Index 237 v This page intentionally left blank List of Figures Frontispiece Double portrait, ‘William Blake in Youth and Age’ by George Richmond after Frederick Tatham, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection 1. Illustration to Thomas Gray’s ‘Epitaph on Mrs Clarke’, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection 18 2. ‘Fear and Hope are—Vision’, from The Gates of Paradise 26 3. Detail from The Book of Urizen, plate 3, Courtesy of Library of Congress, Washington 74 4. ‘The Ancient Days’, frontispiece to Europe, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 83 5. Detail from America, plate 7, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 85 6. Detail from Songs of Innocence and of Experience38 92 7. Detail from Illustration to Thomas Gray’s ‘The Descent of Odin’, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection 92 8. Detail from Songs of Innocence and of Experience40 92 9. Detail from Illustration to Thomas Gray’s ‘Ode on a distant Prospect of Eton College’, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection 92 10. Detail from the title-page to The Book of Urizen. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Washington 99 11. Jerusalem, plate 70, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection 105 12. Jerusalem, plate 100, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection 107 13. ‘Caius Gabriel Cibber, ‘Raving Madness’: sculpture from the Bethlem Hospital, Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum 150 vii
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