The Nation and Athenaeum, 41 (17 Sept 1927) 779
If we have not yet made up our minds about Blake, we have no longer any excuse for not doing so. 1 Mr. Keynes has compressed his great edition of 1925 into one volume which is not only of convenient size, but of convenient price. 2 The Nonesuch Press has produced it in a form both beautiful and practical; and 1,152 pages of India paper for twelve and six is extremely cheap. 3 Variant readings are omitted; but there is no doubt that we now have what will remain the standard text. What is more, this volume will introduce many readers to parts of Blake’s work which are almost unknown. In the miscellaneous prose and the marginalia and the correspondence there is much of great interest; and there is the wholly delightful and surprising “Peacockian” fragment, “An Island in the Moon.” 4 The Nonesuch Press has also made a very fine edition of Blake’s drawings, prepared by Mr. Keynes with explanatory text; and this book also is extremely cheap at thirty-five shillings. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, to which Mr. Max Plowman contributes an essay, may not seem relatively so cheap at a guinea – but it is not only fully illustrated but illuminated. 5 It is a book which all libraries, and all individual enthusiasts, ought to possess. For Blake was not only both poet and draughtsman, he was also the producer of his own books. Other men have both painted and written; but with Blake the two activities were almost one. You cannot say that he illustrated his writings, or that he provided texts to his drawings: he did both at once. That is one reason why Blake is so difficult a subject; the critic of Blake should be highly skilled in the technique of verse and prose and the technique of drawing and design and colour (for which reason I approach him with diffidence). The Marriage of Heaven and Hellis one of his most amazing works, a book equal in importance to Also Sprach Zarathustra: and here we have it as nearly as possible in the form in which Blake meant it to be read. 6 No one who has read it and looked at it in this new edition will want to read it in any other.
The other books are of various interest and unequal value. Miss Wilson’s Life, also beautifully done, with a capital choice of illustrations, by the Nonesuch Press, is an impressive book. 7 It...
