Visions of the Daughters of Albion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,Poetry
Visions of the Daughters of Albion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake) Details
This carefully crafted ebook: "Visions of the Daughters of Albion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Originally produced in 1793, Visions of the Daughters of Albion has become one of Blake's most widely read and interpreted prophecies. The main character is a liberation figure challenging not only male chauvinism and marriage but the institution of slavery and imperialism in general. The female protagonist Oothoon, a sex slave who is raped by the slave driver Bromion, is clearly made to represent both the fertile, virginal and innocent lands of the pre-colonialism New World and the oppression of the women of Blake’s time, who were, like slaves, treated as property of their husbands. In the course of his poem Oothoon becomes the ultimate symbol for liberation both as a woman and as a slave. William Blake (1757 – 1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.
Reviews
I originally ordered this book in order to do a presentation for a graduate course at a local university. It worked out perfectly for the presentation as the pictures are beautiful and the editor, Robert Essick, does a marvelous job describing each picture and even transcribing the notes and illustrations from Blake's own notebook. Further, Essick adds a section entitled "Commentary" which I relied on heavily to explain certain aspects of Blake's life to the students. Essick's writing reads easily and beautifully, so there is never a dull moment, even though it is a scholarly work. If you are interested at all in William Blake and his works, I believe you will enjoy this book very much.