William Blake in Context

Description

William Blake, poet and artist, is a figure often understood to have 'created his own system'. Combining close readings and detailed analysis of a range of Blake's work, from lyrical songs to later myth, from writing to visual art, this collection of thirty-eight lively and authoritative essays examines what Blake had in common with his contemporaries, the writers who influenced him, and those he influenced in turn. Chapters from an international team of leading scholars also attend to his wider contexts: material, formal, cultural, and historical, to enrich our understanding of, and engagement with, Blake's work. Accessibly written, incisive, and informed by original research, William Blake in Context enables readers to appreciate Blake anew, from both within and outside of his own idiom.

Sarah Haggarty is a Lecturer in the Faculty of English and Fellow of Queens' College, at the University of Cambridge. She has published three previous books about Blake: Blake's Gifts: Poetry and the Politics of Exchange (Cambridge, 2010); William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience (with Jon Mee, 2013); and Blake and Conflict (with Jon Mee, 2009).

'This volume will be valuable for both new and experienced readers and scholars of Blake ... Recommended.' D. D. Schierenbeck, Choice '... William Blake in Context provides a massive amount of information about William Blake with multiple points of departure for further research.' Roger Whitson, European Romantic Review