Blake's Poetry and Designs: Authoritative Texts, Illuminations in Color and Monochrome, Related Prose, Criticism

With apologies for self-promotion (awarding this book 4 stars so as not to bring down the average), I just want to point out that the old 1979 cover, the "Look Inside" feature, and the existing reviews here are misleading because they do not reflect changes in our new 2008 edition. This new throughly reworked and updated edition now contains all of Blake's *Jerusalem*, revised introductions and notes, a reallocated section of criticism (reflecting developments since 1979), more lightly punctuated texts, much more beautifully reproduced color images of Blake's own designs (17, counting the cover), an expanded chronology, enhanced maps, and numerous cross-references to web resources, especially the William Blake Archive[...] and the University of Georgia's eE (electronic Erdman) and Blake Concordance please see: [...] Mary Lynn Johnson & John E. Grant (we welcome feedback at [email protected])

The editors of this text did a fine job. I've noticed especially their choice of page breaks and quotations on the more difficult poems (the Prophetic Books) are admirable. They've made the poetry from our beloved William Blake accessible to a wider audience by editing his text to decrease the chance of confusion through mere ambiguity.

This is a book is quite good as most Norton Critical Editions are. It has a lot of what is needed by students for a course on Blake or, more likely, a course that spends part of a term on Blake.It has some biographical material and some maps of England and London at the time Blake lived. There are also a good helping of black and white as well as color plates of Blake's illuminated works. The color plates are only good - the color is not produced beautifully. The student will only get an impression of the true power of Blake's artistry. However, a good teacher will point the student to the Blake Archive at:... so the students can see the works more completely with variants and in better color (if you have good video cards and monitors). One of the best parts of this book begins on page 176 where working drafts are shown and compared to the final versions. There is also a nice selection of critical writing on Blake - criticism from Blake's time through the present. There is also a useful bibliography.In some ways this is "Erdman Lite", but it is much more portable than Erdman and for an introductory course on Blake it is probably sufficient. I am glad that I have it in my library.But please don't stop here!

Nice book, but too bad its front picture cover is defaced by Norton's double-layer of big gold stickers with high-tack adhesive that makes them impossible to remove without adhesive remaining on the cover.

This is absolutely the best compendium of Blake's work which articualtes an outstanding range of his vision. This edition acknowledges the poetry and color paintings of a consumate craftsman of the imagination on high quality, acid free paper and is nylon stitched and bound in signatures to last a lifetime. Books are rarely made this way but the Norton edition is a beautiful rendering of the first, and perhaps, primary British Romantic poet.