Product Description

‘A marvellous work of the imagination…enthralling’ Ruth Rendell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4236 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

About the Author
Peter Ackroyd is a prize-winning writer of fiction and non fiction. Almost all his novels are historical novels: he has a unique gift for conjuring lives and characters from the past. Hawksmoor won the Guardian fiction prize, and Chatterton (also about forgery) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
He has written brief lives of Chaucer, Turner and Newton, and major biographies of T.S. Eliot, Dickens, Blake, Thomas More and - most recently - Shakespeare. He holds a CBE for services to literature and lives in London.

Customer Reviews

A lyrical and entrancing portrait of an enduring genius
Blake's prophetic books are, in proportion to their length and literary importance, amongst the least read texts within the body of English Literature. Certainly, they are the least understood.

This is partly because of the notion, common today as it was amongst Blake's contemporaries, that the poet-artist was, at best, an ultrasensitive whose work was not consciously or methodically thought out but merely reflected his changeable mood at the time of writing. Either that or he was a lunatic, and his work the ramblings of a lunatic; this view is, unfortunately, still common today.

Ackroyd's examination of Blake's life is important in that it aids in expelling this illusion, both by relating the nature of Blake's time and place to the artist's output, and by being willing to engage Blake on his own ground. For example, Ackroyd at times willingly entertains the veracity of Blake's frequent visions, which is an engaging angle for the reader seeking to penetrate fully into Blake's world (and an attitude less likely to be found in a more academic study). At others, he substitutes the notion that Blake's imaginative faculties were of such a magnitude as to invade his ocular sense: he literally saw what he fancied. Either way, Blake is far from a madman and closer to a genius; consequently, one can feel the grain of his life - as he lived it - passing under the fingertips as they turn the pages.

This biography is that rare thing amongst its kind that allows the reader to engage with the subject's life, as well as observe it; at times, it allows moments of genuine love for the pugnacious Londoner who remains so little understood. Alone, it will not grant an understanding of Blake's poetry or art, particularly his prophetic works; this is not Ackroyd's intention. Rather, it allows a reader (or, more accurately, 'the viewer') of Blake's work, either experienced or virginal, to approach them with the attention, engagement and willingness to understand that they both require and deserve.

a little too fawning to its subject matter
I have really enjoyed Ackroyd's writing in the past. His London Biography, in particular, is an outstanding book.

I had, therefore, high hopes for his life of Blake, the 18th century visionary being a famous Londoner and a fascinating man.

I was a little disappointed. It's certainly learned and well researched (though it eggregiously overuses the word "vouchsafe"), but seems to skip over a number of important points: for one thing, Ackroyd hints darkly the Blake may have had misogynistic tendencies, but then declares "this isn't the place for a discussion of such things". Well, if a balanced biography isn't, I don't know what is.

Additionally, Ackroyd is somewhat credulous in his desire to portray Blake as a misunderstood genius, rather than a somewhat troubled individual. Serious credence is given to statements that certain people in Blake's circle (including, to an extent, Blake himself) were clairvoyant, whilst on the other hand short shrift is given to far more credible notions: such as that Blake - a man given to regular visions of angels and saints, after all - might have been mentally ill. Blake's behaviour may have been that of a genius, but is equally explainable as that of a flat-out nutcase, which appears to have been the general consensus of the time (and might partly explain Blake's lack of success during his own life).

Even-handed and insightful
This is well worth a read. The reader may gain a greater insight into Blake from the events of his life, which are relayed in detail. And furthermore from Ackroyd's empathetic and even-handed treatment of Blake the man, who one feels, will always be more than the sum of his actions. Particularly good for those who only know Blake the poet rather than the painter, the illustrations and engravings are given lots of attention and there are quite a few pictures to view.