William Blake: Complete Illuminated Books: The Complete Illuminated Books

The best William Blake book for any fan of his illustrations. High quality printing!

This beautiful paperback volume consists of high quality reproductions of Blake's original illustrated books. It is an incredible bargain. The pictures are powerful and Blake intended the pictures and the texts to illumine each other. I've never disciplined myself to sit down and read the text from the engraved script; its not easy or natural since the print on many plates is small and faint; but it would be worth the effort. However, there is a type face version of all the poems in the back, to refer to when needed to make out a word. This is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand Blake's profound prophetic vision more deeply.

I would have had no room to shelve the original glorious oversized book anymore, but this is a wonderful alternative. You can see the beautiful madness of his art, poetry and paintings. Absolutely fantastic, for $1.99!

Peter Ackroyd's biography, Blake, renewed my interest in Blake's graphic work. This collection of Blake's plates turns out to be wonderfully exciting, complete and visually arresting. I am extremely excited by it. The opportunity to read his work as written, painted or etched in his own hand is wonderful. Moreover, I find that the same texts that soon proved "dry" when viewed as text alone now come alive when accompanied by the Master's graphic designs. Frankly, I can't wait to share copies with friends. I have already shared it with those couple of friends with an interest in art and poetry.

This book is a complete collection of Blake's "Illuminated" works. If you are interested at all in Blake, or even think you might be at some point, you will want to buy this book eventually -- and now is as good a time as any. It is convenient, relatively inexpensive (as of this writing), and with only a very few unfortunate exceptions (a few pages out of 400) provides a remarkable experience to the reader. The book contains high-resolution scans of Blake's pages. These scans are at their original scale, and by modern standards are quite small, hence most of the complaints about needing magnifying glasses. Several copies exist of each of Blake's originals, and only one such copy is reproduced here for each of the works. The originals are among the most valuable literary artifacts in existence and it was not a trivial matter for the book's editors to scan them. However the legibility of some of the original pages selected is simply poor, aside from their size. I am still young and sharp eyed and had no trouble reading those plates with clear printing even when the text was tiny; but there are places where the printed impression of the text is simply too faded to be read. For instance, Urizen 21. There is a complete typeset text in the back of the book, but it must be said that reading Blake's writings in their original Illuminated context is a very much superior experience, and every time the reader must flip to the back it is an unpleasant interruption. No doubt the editors had their reasons for selecting the originals as they did, but I very much wish they had put more emphasis on legibility in their choice, especially given their perfectly defensible insistence on preserving the scale of the originals. The choice to scan an uncolored print of America: A Prophecy is likewise questionable, but is at least noted and defended. This collection has a clear policy of minimal commentary, but in cases where there is significant variation in text between printings -- for instance the obvious defacing of a suggestive couplet on Thel 6 -- there ought to have been *some* note on at least the existence of such variations, even if explanation and commentary is outside the editorial bounds. These are minor criticisms: right now this is the definitive edition of Blake's Illuminated Books for a regular audience. If you are even slightly farsighted -- have ever even considered reading glasses -- you will probably need them if not a magnifying glass for this. Have them handy and you will spare yourself some frustration. But the experience is worth it, and you will be no worse off than Blake's original audience.

Generally, I enjoy the art works printed by Dover Publishers. For Dore, Grosz, Hogarth, Piranesi there is none out there better. But volume of Blake's work is worth a price that is triples the rate for anything from Dover. It is a beautiful publication with perfect color matches to the original. It offers the chance for the reader to deal with the text from the original or to choose much more readable type at the volume's end. If you want to have a visionary's art and verse handy and home, this is the book to buy

William Blake - a genius before his time - created powerful words and images. Reading his works, and studying his pictures, will have a positive effect on your ability to design and communicate. Since purchasing this book, I've found increased attention to details, ways to eliminate clutter, a better ability to write succinctly and creative ways of looking at problems. I recommend this book for all readers wishing to improve their communication, design and creative skills. You won't be disappointed.

I bought this to add to my growing collection of Blake materials--and am very disappointed in the size of many of the graphics. Some of the etchings (America a Prophecy, Europe a Prophecy, The Song of Los, for example) are at full-page size, and are quite easy to read and to view for details. Others (Songs of Innocence and Experience, The First Book of Urizen, and Milton, for example) occupy only a part of the available space on these large (approximately 8-1/2" x 11-1/2") pages. There is no reason why the smaller etchings couldn't have been enlarged to enable viewing of details. Even in the reproduction of Jerusalem, the graphics could have been enlarged by another 10-15% and still fit on the page. As it is, you'll have to provide your own magnification for many pages, which is a disappointment in a large-format book that would easily have accommodated larger-sized reproductions. Having said all of that, if you are a real Blake enthusiast, you may want to acquire this book anyway; it IS in color, unlike the Erdman "complete illustrations," which is in grayscale, and when the etchings are presented in true full-page dimensions, they have a great appeal.

Están con el tamaño original pero al final viene la redacción para leer lo escrito. Excelente

Très belles reproductions intégrales + retranscription des livres gravés & publiés par Blake.

As imagens poderiam estar em uma melhor qualidade. Fora isso, sensacional e mandatório para um fã do William Blake.

Im really enjoying going through this. There is, however, a lot of empty space around most paintings, which I was covered by either having the works made larger or by having the text on the same page.

Es un libro completo para cualquier interesado en la obra gráfica de William Blake