The Life of William Blake

Front Cover
Courier Dover Publications, 2017 M05 9 - 640 pages
One of the greatest Victorian-era biographies, Alexander Gilchrist's The Life of William Blake plays a key role in the history of Blake's work and its influence on other writers and artists. The first standard text on Blake and a cornerstone of the extensive scholarship on his life and work, it not only delivered its subject from unjust obscurity but also dispelled the notion of Blake's insanity and established his genius as a visionary artist and poet.
Sensitive, highly readable accounts trace Blake's childhood and years as an engraver's apprentice, his relations with patrons and employers, his trial for treason, and his declining health and untimely death. The author's wide-ranging research includes interviews with many of Blake's surviving friends, whose personal recollections add warmth and immediacy to this portrait. Extensive quotes from the subject's poetry and prose — practically unknown at the time of the original 1863 publication — further enliven the text. In addition to a critical commentary on Blake's boyhood poems, this transformative biography features more than 40 of his illustrations.

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Contents

CHAPTER I
5
CHAPTER III
12
CHAPTER IV
24
AND YoUTHFUL DiscIPLEs 182527
27
INTRODUCTION TO THE POLITE WoRLD 178284 AET 2527
44
CHAPTER VII
52
NOTES ON LAVATER 1788 AET 3031
62
CHAPTER IX
70
A KEEN EMPLOYER 18057 AET 4850
219
THE DESIGNS To BLAIR 18048 AET 4751
238
CHAPTER XXV
255
YEARS OF DEEPENING NEGLECT 181017 AET 5360
263
CHAPTER XXVIII
270
NOTES ON REYNOLDS I
276
CHAPTER XXXI
294
INventions to THE Book of Job
301

BookSELLER JOHNSONs 179192 AET 3435
92
CHAPTER XIII
118
AT WORK FOR THE PUBLISHERs 179599 AET 3842
137
PoET HAYLEY AND FELPHAM 18001 AET 4344
158
AET 6870 3 II
165
TRIAL FOR HIGH TREASON 18034 AET 4647
192
CHAPTER XXI
205
MAD OR NOT MAD 2
337
CHAPTER XXXVI
351
CHAPTER XXXVIII
383
SUPPLEMENTARY
388
THE COLOUR PRINTS
404
ANNOTATED LIST OF BLAKEs PAINTINGS DRAWINGS
415
INDEX
527

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About the author (2017)

A seminal figure in both the literature and the visual arts of the Romantic age, William Blake (1757–1827) dwelt his entire life in London, where he made his living as an engraver. The visionary poet and painter, whose art was misunderstood and overlooked during his lifetime, created intensely spiritual works informed by his strong philosophical and religious beliefs.

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