Items related to Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
By William Blake
Romantic and Revolutionary Biblical Prophecy
‘A True Classic Publication’
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a book by the English poet and printmaker William Blake. It is a series of texts written in imitation of biblical prophecy but expressing Blake's own intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary beliefs. Like his other books, it was published as printed sheets from etched plates containing prose, poetry and illustrations. The plates were then coloured by Blake and his wife Catherine.
The work was composed between 1790 and 1793, in the period of radical foment and political conflict immediately after the French Revolution. The title is an ironic reference to Emanuel Swedenborg's theological work Heaven and Hell, published in Latin 33 years earlier. Swedenborg is directly cited and criticized by Blake in several places in the Marriage. Though Blake was influenced by his grand and mystical cosmic conception, Swedenborg's conventional moral structures and his Manichaean view of good and evil led Blake to express a deliberately depolarized and unified vision of the cosmos in which the material world and physical desire are equally part of the divine order; hence, a marriage of heaven and hell. The book is written in prose, except for the opening "Argument" and the "Song of Liberty". The book describes the poet's visit to Hell, a device adopted by Blake from Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost.
Blake's theory of contraries was not a belief in opposites but rather a belief that each person reflects the contrary nature of God, and that progression in life is impossible without contraries. Moreover he explores the contrary nature of reason and of energy, believing that two types of people existed: the "energetic creators" and the "rational organizers", or, as he calls them in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the "devils" and "angels". Both are necessary to life according to Blake.
Blake's text has been interpreted in many ways. It certainly forms part of the revolutionary culture of the period. The references to the printing-house suggest the underground radical printers producing revolutionary pamphlets at the time. Ink-blackened printworkers were comically referred to as a "printer's devil", and revolutionary publications were regularly denounced from the pulpits as the work of the devil.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
“A leading American Blake scholar once described the prospect of editing "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" as ‘a swamp filled with gators;’ Michael Phillips has navigated his way with great skill through the problems of chronology, textual unity, technique, contemporary context and significance of Blake''s strikingly witty, sardonic, quirky, cryptic product of his unique combination of text and illustration in his illuminated books. As well as the facsimile of Copy B, one of the earliest of the nine known copies of the book, there are twenty-one valuable supplementary color plates of comparable pages from other copies, including a full run of Plate 14 as it occurs in the nine copies produced between 1793 to the year of his death, 1827. The detailed commentary discusses both text and illustrations, and in the case of the illustrations is most helpfully accompanied by appropriate details from Blake''s designs.” — Martin Butlin, formerly Keeper of the British
“This edition of one of Blake’s most potent and provocative books will give great pleasure both to Blake enthusiasts and to those new to his work.”—Tracy Chevalier
--Tracy Chevalier
“This is an excellent scholarly edition of one of Blake’s most fascinating works, likely to become the defining text for generations to come. No one knows as much about Blake’s work in this period as Michael Phillips and he uses his knowledge of the text, its context, and Blake’s printing techniques to open up the question of what Blake thought he was doing with "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".” —John Mee
--John Mee
A leading American Blake scholar once described the prospect of editing "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" as a swamp filled with gators; Michael Phillips has navigated his way with great skill through the problems of chronology, textual unity, technique, contemporary context and significance of Blake's strikingly witty, sardonic, quirky, cryptic product of his unique combination of text and illustration in his illuminated books. As well as the facsimile of Copy B, one of the earliest of the nine known copies of the book, there are twenty-one valuable supplementary color plates of comparable pages from other copies, including a full run of Plate 14 as it occurs in the nine copies produced between 1793 to the year of his death, 1827. The detailed commentary discusses both text and illustrations, and in the case of the illustrations is most helpfully accompanied by appropriate details from Blake's designs. Martin Butlin, editor of "The Complete Paintings and Drawings of William Blake"
--Martin Butlin"
This edition of one of Blake s most potent and provocative books will give great pleasure both to Blake enthusiasts and to those new to his work.
--Tracy Chevalier"
This is an excellent scholarly edition of one of Blake s most fascinating works, likely to become the defining text for generations to come. No one knows as much about Blake s work in this period as Michael Phillips and he uses his knowledge of the text, its context, and Blake s printing techniques to open up the question of what Blake thought he was doing with "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell." John Mee
--John Mee"
"A leading American Blake scholar once described the prospect of editing The Marriage of Heaven and Hell as 'a swamp filled with gators;' Michael Phillips has navigated his way with great skill through the problems of chronology, textual unity, technique, contemporary context and significance of Blake's strikingly witty, sardonic, quirky, cryptic product of his unique combination of text and illustration in his illuminated books. As well as the facsimile of Copy B, one of the earliest of the nine known copies of the book, there are twenty-one valuable supplementary color plates of comparable pages from other copies, including a full run of Plate 14 as it occurs in the nine copies produced between 1793 to the year of his death, 1827. The detailed commentary discusses both text and illustrations, and in the case of the illustrations is most helpfully accompanied by appropriate details from Blake's designs." -- Martin Butlin, editor of The Complete Paintings and Drawings of William Blake --Martin Butlin
"This edition of one of Blake's most potent and provocative books will give great pleasure both to Blake enthusiasts and to those new to his work." --Tracy Chevalier
"This is an excellent scholarly edition of one of Blake's most fascinating works, likely to become the defining text for generations to come. No one knows as much about Blake's work in this period as Michael Phillips and he uses his knowledge of the text, its context, and Blake's printing techniques to open up the question of what Blake thought he was doing with The Marriage of Heaven and Hell." --John Mee --John Mee
About the Author:
“This edition of one of Blake’s most potent and provocative books will give great pleasure both to Blake enthusiasts and to those new to his work.”—Tracy Chevalier
--Tracy Chevalier
“This is an excellent scholarly edition of one of Blake’s most fascinating works, likely to become the defining text for generations to come. No one knows as much about Blake’s work in this period as Michael Phillips and he uses his knowledge of the text, its context, and Blake’s printing techniques to open up the question of what Blake thought he was doing with "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".” —John Mee
--John Mee
A leading American Blake scholar once described the prospect of editing "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" as a swamp filled with gators; Michael Phillips has navigated his way with great skill through the problems of chronology, textual unity, technique, contemporary context and significance of Blake's strikingly witty, sardonic, quirky, cryptic product of his unique combination of text and illustration in his illuminated books. As well as the facsimile of Copy B, one of the earliest of the nine known copies of the book, there are twenty-one valuable supplementary color plates of comparable pages from other copies, including a full run of Plate 14 as it occurs in the nine copies produced between 1793 to the year of his death, 1827. The detailed commentary discusses both text and illustrations, and in the case of the illustrations is most helpfully accompanied by appropriate details from Blake's designs. Martin Butlin, editor of "The Complete Paintings and Drawings of William Blake"
--Martin Butlin"
This edition of one of Blake s most potent and provocative books will give great pleasure both to Blake enthusiasts and to those new to his work.
--Tracy Chevalier"
This is an excellent scholarly edition of one of Blake s most fascinating works, likely to become the defining text for generations to come. No one knows as much about Blake s work in this period as Michael Phillips and he uses his knowledge of the text, its context, and Blake s printing techniques to open up the question of what Blake thought he was doing with "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell." John Mee
--John Mee"
"A leading American Blake scholar once described the prospect of editing The Marriage of Heaven and Hell as 'a swamp filled with gators;' Michael Phillips has navigated his way with great skill through the problems of chronology, textual unity, technique, contemporary context and significance of Blake's strikingly witty, sardonic, quirky, cryptic product of his unique combination of text and illustration in his illuminated books. As well as the facsimile of Copy B, one of the earliest of the nine known copies of the book, there are twenty-one valuable supplementary color plates of comparable pages from other copies, including a full run of Plate 14 as it occurs in the nine copies produced between 1793 to the year of his death, 1827. The detailed commentary discusses both text and illustrations, and in the case of the illustrations is most helpfully accompanied by appropriate details from Blake's designs." -- Martin Butlin, editor of The Complete Paintings and Drawings of William Blake --Martin Butlin
"This edition of one of Blake's most potent and provocative books will give great pleasure both to Blake enthusiasts and to those new to his work." --Tracy Chevalier
"This is an excellent scholarly edition of one of Blake's most fascinating works, likely to become the defining text for generations to come. No one knows as much about Blake's work in this period as Michael Phillips and he uses his knowledge of the text, its context, and Blake's printing techniques to open up the question of what Blake thought he was doing with The Marriage of Heaven and Hell." --John Mee --John Mee
Michael Phillips, formerly Reader in the Department of English and Related Literature, is now Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York. He has published extensively on Blake and was guest curator of major exhibitions of Blake held in London, New York, and Paris.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherUniv of Miami Pr
- Publication date1981
- ISBN 10 0870240196
- ISBN 13 9780870240195
- BindingPaperback
- Rating
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