Didn't expect this to be so good. I don't feel qualified to rate it.

Highly recommend it, even only for the proverbs of hell.

One can find the full text in a good anthology of Blake, but without the images to which he married the text, one is only getting half the message. This is a handy way to see the book as Blake intended, with full-color reproductions of the plates on which he engraved both words and pictures. ( )

This is a beautifully put together book. It is a facsimile edition of William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell from Oxford's Bodleian Library. It has replica marbled cover/endboards, aged-looking endpapers (complete with old bookplate and penciled in call numbers), and the facsimile of Blake's plates (complete with penciled page numbers). It is a work of art. Included alongside the Bodleian's copy of the full text are other colored copies of several important plates, tacked on at the end. The book has (a) an introduction of several pages, introducing Blake and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, (b) a transcription of the poem, (c) the facsimile of the Blake original (plus extras), (d) commentary on each plate, (e) a checklist of copies of the work, and (f) a bibliography. The bibliography is long and both the intro and commentary have copious references. The commentary describes the physical attributes of each plate, such as an explanation of drawings, etchings, and writings, and it also provides commentary on the text and its meaning, with particular reference to Blake's life and time.

On the physical nature of this book, it is superb beyond compare. This is how facsimile editions should be constructed and published. (Not just of Blake, but any author).

But, then there is Blake. Blake must always be taken with a grain of salt and in small doses, because, well, Blake is weird. And probably nuts too. And Blake's ideas seem, to me, of just being ornery for orneriness's sake. He hates morality and Christianity and any organized group of people, whether church or state. This is why Blake is so beloved today, as he was the forerunner of all leftist art and agitprop that demeans the powers that be. He's a proto-hippie. Thus such crap like "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" and "The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God" (and un-biblical crap this is) drowns out any witty and philosophical epigrams that Blake might spin (like "One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression").

Three stars for Blake's text. Four stars for Blake's art. Five stars for the critical apparatus. Five stars for the physical object of the book. Four-and-a-half stars overall. ( )

I love Blake. He always manages to touch something in my heart. There's a reason the only poem I know by heart is one of his.
And whether it's with words, or with paint (The Night of Enitharmon's Joy is a personal favourite), or with his etchings (another personal favourite: 'Europe supported'. At first, it looks like a picture with 3 pretty, naked girls, then you realise it is harsh social commentary, that still rings true today), he always manages to make you think.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is just brilliant. It's one of those books you can read a thousand times, and still discover something more, something deeper each time.
I thus implore you to read it. ;)

Some quotes to live by (all from the 'Proverbs from Hell. I just selected a few that spoke to me today. There not the most well-known, just the ones I liked best today. Ask me tomorrow and I might select some others.)

- He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.
- No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
- The most sublime act is to set another before you.
- Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.

And the next quote summs up how Blake sees religion. My own view on it has always been similar, even before reading Blake.

"Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of and enslaved the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects. Thus began Priesthood. Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounced that the Gods had ordered such things. Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast." (less) ( )

I first encountered this part visionary / part comic / part poetry / part etching long poem in 1969, in an English class, while an Engineering student at Cornell University. I had grown up a kid scientist, and my hope was that I'd become a NASA engineer. I was also very much in my head and not so much in my body, in the world of logic and not so much the world of emotion. Blake's poem convince me I had to change all that or I'd live out my days a reduced version of myself. This powerful piece reached out to me over many decades and 6000 miles and changed not only my focus (from Engineering to English major) but also set in motion a process of actualizing the more suppressed parts of myself, a lifelong activity that began then and there. Thank you, Mr. Blake!

- David ( )