The Stranger from Paradise : A Biography of William Blake G.E.,

Description: From Publishers WeeklyWhen Blake died in 1827, just short of 70, young George Richmond, a future Royal Academician, closed the artist's eyes "to keep the vision in." A writer, engraver, printmaker and painter, Blake, who could be seen as the ecstatic, English Michelangelo his depictions of the human body pulsed with physical energy was largely neglected in his lifetime. While he celebrated religion in his work, his idiosyncratic approach was considered subversive, and he sold little of his work. Still, he lived serenely, if in poverty, with his devoted wife, Catherine, except for the turbulent year of his unwarranted trial (and acquittal) for seditious language Blake's only public episode. Privately, his life was a continuing drama. He was consumed by communicating with spirits, whose portraits he often drew; others sometimes sat with him, unseeing, in his shabby rooms. Bentley, University of Toronto's emeritus professor of English, a Blake scholar for 50 years and the author of several books about Blake, affectionately and authoritatively renders the life of the artist, who's now considered less madman than visionary. Many know Blake's great anthem, "Jerusalem," the poem "The Tyger" and the striking etching "The Ancient of Days." Via Blake's writings and drawings, records of his intimates and thorough treatments of artworks such as the Visionary Heads, Bentley evokes something of the whole man an eccentric genius who saw the world as a product of personal imagination. Few in his time agreed with the understanding minister who explained that if Blake was cracked, "his is a crack that lets in the Light." With 120 b&w and 50 magnificent color illustrations and more evident research than Peter Ackroyd's biography of 1995, the book is a great bargain. (July)Forecast: The sweeping Blake exhibition that recently appeared at New York's Metropolitan Museum has helped renew interest in Blake; expect a large readership.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From Library JournalThough William Blake never traveled more than 60 miles from London, his was an intellectually complex life. Bentley (English, Univ. of Toronto) offers a comprehensive mapping of the life of both Blake and his wife, Catherine Boucher. Blake was born in 1757 and grew up in the language of radical religious dissent. His fundamentals of faith and growing genius impelled him to a life outside of popular political and social conventions. Enthusiastically exulting in the power of the spirit, Blake eventually created a new gospel of art that was otherworldly and essentially spiritual. Bentley traces Blake from his natal landscape, youth, marriage, and apprenticeship through to his later years as a working engraver, poet, and radical visionary. Bentley is academic and thorough, and this is more of a straight biography than an analysis. Readers will still want to read Northrop Frye's Fearful Symmetry (1947). With lovely illustrations and two comprehensive appendixes; for libraries committed to a full reference. Scott Hightower, Fordham Univ., New York Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Location: Brooklyn, New York

End Time: 2025-01-05T20:46:22.000Z

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