The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Volume 6:
The Urizen Books
William Blake
Edited by David Worrall
David Bindman, General Editor

Paper | 1998 | $50.00 / £34.95
232 pp. | 9 x 12 | 48 color plates, 11 b&w illus.
Cloth | 1995 | $125.00 / £85.00
232 pp. | 8 x 12 | 48 color plates, 11 b&w illus.

Shopping Cart | Table of Contents

The last volumes in the series of William Blake's Illuminated Books reveal the writer and artist as a prophet driven by a sense of apocalyptic urgency. Blake conceived and executed The Continental Prophecies and The Urizen Books in the early 1790s, capturing the intellectual and spiritual turmoil of the American and French revolutions. Here, for the first time, the general reader will encounter Blake's most intense vision in reproductions that do justice to the originals, accompanied by texts, comprehensive notes and commentaries, and detailed interpretations of the designs.

The Urizen Books, made up of "Urizen," "The Book of Los," and "Ahania," describes the dissemination of the autocratic mythology of Urizen, Blake's inflexibly rationalist and myopic law-giver. These books stand as the author's sensible and considered response to the events of his time. The illuminated text of "Urizen" and the ten full-page illustrations from copy D in the British Museum, never before reproduced, represent a tour de force in Blake's specialist process of color printing.

These volumes complete the six-part series of William Blake's Illuminated Books, including Jerusalem, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Early Illuminated Books, and Milton, A Poem, all published by Princeton University Press.

Table of Contents:

PREFACE by David Bindman, General Editor 6
FOREWORD 7
CITATIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS 8
BLAKE'S URIZEN BOOKS: Introduction 9
THE FIRST BOOK OF URIZEN
Themes and Contexts 19
The Designs 25
Text and Reproduction 61
Supplementary Illustrations 118
Notes to Blake's Text 128
Variants 144
Bibliographical Description 147
Notes and Tables on Variant Copies of Urizen 148
THE BOOK OF AHAMA
Themes and Contexts 153
The Designs 160
Text and Reproduction 165
Supplementary Illustrations 178
Notes to Blake's Text 184
Bibliographical Description 191
THE BOOK OF LOS
Themes and Contexts 195
The Designs 202
Text and Reproduction 205
Supplementary Illustrations 216
Notes to Blake's Text 218
Bibliographical Description 222
WORKS CITED 225

Series:

• Blake
  David Bindman, General Editor

Subject Areas:

• Art and Architecture
• British Literature
• Literature: Primary Works and Letters

Published in association with the William Blake Trust

Cloth: Not for sale in Japan

Shopping Cart:

For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Paper: $50.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-00146-3
Cloth: $125.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-04416-3

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Paper: £34.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-00146-3
Cloth: £85.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-04416-3

Prices subject to change without notice

File created: 11/4/2009

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