The Stranger from Paradise: a biography of William Blake

640 Pages·2001·131.235 MB·English

by  G. E. Bentley Jr. [Gerald Eades Bentley Jr.]

XHE STRANGER
FROM PARADISE
G.E. BENTLEY JR
THE STRANGER FROM PARADISE
A BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM BLAKE
G.E.
BENTLEY, JR
William Blake's wife once said of him: "I
have very little of Mr. Blake's company; he
is always in Paradise". This fascinating and
generously illustrated biography of the
great English artist, poet and mystic brings
us very much into Blake's company,
presenting, often in the words of his
contemporaries, everything that is known of
his life and times.
G.E. Bentley, Jr, tells us that although Blake
struggled with the ways of the world in his
youth and early manhood, he was always
frustrated that these ways were not his own.
Instead he spoke the language of radical
religious Dissent, standing outside the
popular political and social conventions of
his time and lamenting the power of Church
and State. Blake learned to participate in
traditions of vision and piety, to exult in the
power of the spirit and in visionary art and
literature. He created a new gospel of art,
other-worldly and fundamentally spiritual,
and, in his old age, he exhibited a serenity
in poverty and a devotion to the realm of
the spirit that was revered by his disciples.
Blake's life bears the shape of great art itself,
says Bentley. Erom his youthful vaulting
ambitions in painting, engraving, poetry
and music, through his mature flirtation
with fortune, to his joyful return to the
vision and confidence of his youth, Blake's
life provides a pattern of noble self-sacrifice
and wise self-understanding that is an
inspiration to his generation and to ours.
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Copyright © 2001 by G.E. Bentley, Jr
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers.
Set in Ehrhard 6 by Fakenham Photosetting, Norfolk
Printed in China through Worldprint
For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact:
U.S. Office: sales.press(@yale.edu www.yale.edu/yup
Europe Office: [email protected] www.yale.co.uk
ISBN 0-300-08939-2
Library of Congress Card Number 00-111810
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 987654321
Endpapers: details from Blake, “Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims” (1810). See PI. 108,
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
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The Stranger from Paradise^^^
G.E. Bentley, Jr
7
have very little of Mr. Blake's company
he is always in Paradise'' ^
Published for the Paul Mellon Centre
for Studies in British Art by
Yale University Press
New Haven and Tatndon
^2

For B.B.B.