Product Description

Poet, painter, engraver and visionary, Blake's was a radical spirit fired by genius. Yet his life has remained an enigma. In this magnificent biography Peter Ackroyd discloses the true nature of William Blake's life and art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8868 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

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.

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.

Innocent World
Peter Ackroyd is clearly passionate about his subject matter, and for students of William Blake or those simply seeking further context for his poetry this is ideal. Accessible and not even faintly patronising; the text is comprehensive and coherent.