The Cambridge Companion to William Blake

Poet painter and engraver William Blake died in 1827 in obscure poverty with few admirers. The attention paid today to his remarkable poems prints and paintings would have astonished his contemporaries. Admired for his defiant uncompromising creativity he has become one of the most anthologized and studied writers in English and one of the most studied and collected British artists. His urge to cast words and images into masterpieces of revelation has left us with complex forceful extravagant some times bizarre works of written and visual art that rank among the greatest challenges to plain understanding ever created. This Companion aims to provide guidance to Blake''s work in fresh and readable introductions: biographical literary art historical political religious and bibliographical. Together with a chronology guides to further reading and glossary of terms they identify the key points of departure into Blake''s multifarious world and work.