William Blake: Selected Writings

This volume in the 21st Century Oxford Authors series provides a comprehensive selection of William Blake's (1757-1827) work, accompanied by scholarly apparatus. It arranges his works in chronological order, highlighting his heterodoxy, composite art, and developing thought on sapphism, sodomy, the body, relations between the sexes, violence, and imagination. The edition includes explanatory notes and commentary, an Introduction to Blake's life and works, and a Chronology.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 864 pages
Publication date: 16 August 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

This volume in the 21st Century Oxford Authors series presents a comprehensive collection of the works of William Blake (1757-1827). Accompanied by extensive scholarly apparatus, this authoritative edition enables students to delve into Blake's poetic, illuminated poetry, and prose alongside selections from his letters, manuscripts, notebooks, advertising pamphlets, marginalia, and works printed in conventional letterpress. The edition arranges Blake's works chronologically, based on the date of their initial publication or, in the case of unpublished works, the years in which they were composed. Through editorial headnotes and annotations, this arrangement brings to the forefront Blake's material and intellectual endeavors as a poet, painter, prophet, and non-academic philosopher; the networks of acquaintances, friends, patrons, and enemies who either supported or provoked this work; and the tumultuous historical events he responded to, including the beginnings of modern feminism, the agricultural and industrial revolutions, the American and French Revolutions, William Pitt's so-called Reign of Terror in Britain, an attempted revolution in Ireland (1798), a successful slave rebellion in Haiti (1791-1804), and the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Some editions attempt to sanitize Blake by concealing the most startling aspects of his thought; however, in this edition, Blake's sexual, political, religious, and poetic heterodoxy is fully exposed. At the same time, this edition emphasizes the dynamics of Blake's composite art, with equal emphasis on its verbal and visual dimensions; makes visible the primary lines of force that shape his oeuvre; and highlights his evolving thought on sapphism, sodomy, the body, relationships between the sexes, and more.

By presenting Blake's works in their original context, this edition offers a deeper understanding of his artistic and intellectual achievements, providing a valuable resource for students, scholars, and enthusiasts alike.

Weight: 1026g
Dimension: 140 x 215 x 50 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192868053