G. E. Bentley, Jr. (1930–2017)

...still reading, but I'd finish these 500 pages in a week if I had the time – once I pick it up, I can't put it away. Bentley had studied Blake for half a century before writing this tome, and although incredibly detailed, it's never boring – probably because Bentley treats his subject with such an affection.

Looking forward to write a more final comment on the book once I've finished it – but let's just say that before buying a biography on Blake, I compared all which I could find – finally I picked this one, and I'm pleased to say I made the right choice.

Later I will write about the Princeton "Illuminated Books" poetry series – if anybody reading this can suggest a good book regarding his art (tempera &c.), let me know.… (más)

An awesome work, reflecting a lifetime of meticulous scholarship. One can only admire the devotion and diligence displayed in this work, sure to remain the authoritative biography of Blake for long time to come, perhaps forever. Bentley od much more scholarly than Peter Ackroyd; however, Ackroyd is much more readable; Bentley's work is for those already very interested in Blake and already knowledgeable about his writing, Ackroyd is more likely to elicit interest from the beginner. Ackroyd is readable, almost as interesting as a novel; for the experienced Blakean, One wishes that this work by Bentley had been available to popular biographer Ackroyd and his research assistants; thus, his writing might have been a bit more complete and accurate in details. It should be noteed that Bentley is readable too, but only in small segments, and only by confirmed Blakeans..

Bentley demands the closest attention; one is constantly fumbling back and forth. He has footnotes (two or three per page giving details of his sources or interpretive comments), endnotes (over 100 per chapter, almost always citing primary sources), plates (116, magnificently reproduced, not only of Blake's own work but of many of his contemporaries, not easily available elsewhere), cross references (some virtually demanding rereading earlier material), direct quotations (at least half a dozen per page, and a number of very small black-and-white figures place appropriately within the text. Realizing the density of his own work, Bentley courteously divides each chapter into sections, usually only two or three pages, perfect to read and absorb at one sitting. For example, Chapter 3, on his years as a young artist in the Royal Academy, leading up to his first major publication includes these sections (the subtitles alone give you a sense of how fascinating this work can be): "Blake be an artist," the Gordon Riots [anti-Catholic], professional successes as an engraver, marriage, Blake and the Mathew Circle (including Poetical Sketches), Blake and Wedgwood, John Blake [the wayward brother), Parker & Blake, Printsellers (his first business, a partnership, the house in Poland Street, the death of Robert Blake (his younger, favorite brother). The section on his first (and only printed) book is placed here, chronologically correct, but many of the poems were written from the time he was eleven years old (for example, the incredibly mature "How sweet I roamed") and are discussed, quoted, and commented upon in earlier sections of the biography at the time they were being written. Hence, in reading this six-page section, one is drawn back and forth to earlier passages - a pleasurable, but time-consuming exercise.

Born in Chicago in 1930, to an English professor/scholar, Bentley has spent most of his career at the University of Toronto; however, his studies, visiting professorships, and Fulbright scholarships have taken him, quite literally, all over the globe. He has taught Blake and found documents related to his life in India and Australia, and among his writings are a bibliography of works about Blake in Japanese. He has edited works by Blake, his poetry and his designs, but prior to this biography, his most influential contribution was two volumes of Blake records, including virtually every primary document related to Blake's obscure life: tax records, church records, court appearances, genealogical documents, notes and notebooks, correspondence (his own and his acquaintances), newspaper references, catalogs, and so on and so forth. I suppose this biography takes into consideration every such record extant, including many which are mentioned but then rejected or their authenticity questioned. Reading this book, I probably know more about the life of William Blake than I know of my own father, of any of my cherished teachers and mentors, of contemporary poets whose work I have been reading for over fifty years - maybe even of myself.

Most of the literate public today knows Blake as a poet. In his own time, he was better known - though not at all widely - as an engraver. That was his trade; that was his life's work. Most of his engraving was done on commission or as a speculative effort; so he was always, in a sense, "working for others," fulfilling - or attempting to fulfill - their demands. But in his own mind Blake was a visionary. He saw and spoke his God, with his angels, his prophets, his followers among the ancients. His most cherished work was that which sprang directly from his own visions, from God within, the human imagination. "Thou art a man, God is no more / Thine own humanity learn to adore." Or as Bentley quotes, as he relates Blake's early life as an artist, "The Man who never in his Mind & Thoughts traveld to heaven is No Artist." A year or so before he died, Blake summed up his own life, "Born Novr 1757 in London / & his died several times since." Bentley's biographical summary really serves as the thesis of his work:

'Blake was learning more and more explicitly that Heaven is the source of all art, that the human imagination is the divine spirit, and that the road to temporal felicity lies thorugh the creation of works of art by means of the divine sprit in the human imagination. Poetry, painting, engraving, music, sculpture, architecture: in the creation of these there is felicity.'

Bentley gives balanced attention to Blake's poetry, especially his Illuminated Works, and to his designs, to his original paintings and prints and to his illustrations for the works of others. to his working life as an engraver and to his inspired life as a prophet, to his background as a Dissenting Christian and his own devotion to ancient Scriptures. We get to know his friends as he knew them; we experience his disappointments as well as his personal triumphs. In all fairness, Bentley shows us how Blake's life continued in the life of his widow Catherine; his last chapter is devoted to her; it is called 'Blake's Shadow of His Life - Alone.'

This volume is devoted to an account of Blake's life and work; however, it does not attempt to be an analysis of that work. Though there are extensive comments on specific works, placed chronologically as they are produced, these emphasize influences and presentation and contemporary critical response. Though Bentley does not refrain from explicitly stating his own critical stance, these comments are brief, direct, and to-the-point. He offers no elaborate interpretions. One must look elsewhere (to S. Foster Damon, Northrop Frye, David Erdman, and their colleagues) for rigorous interpretation.

The best descriptive word I can think of for Bentley as biographer is "careful." He takes care to be accurate, to be thorough, to be fair (when accounts conflict), to be clear, and to be appreciative without being opinionated.

I must conclude this review with Bentley's final summary and tribute - the one with which he concludes the chapter on Blake's death.

'William Blake was a Stranger from Paradise in an alien world, in the Realm of the Beast. His real life was in the imagination, in tghe realms of gold. It is not only in his painting and his poems that he unfolds for us the realms of gold, the paradise of imagination from which he came and in which we too may dwell if we choose, if we use our imaginations. He also showed these realms of gold in his life, in which he turned his back upon the Realm of the Beast and the temporal sun and the atoms of the world. Instead he faced th spiritual sun of imagination in which he head the heavenly host crying 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!''

Blake referred to this higher state as Eden or the New Jerusalem. To produce works of art is to rebuild Jerusalem stone by stone; to enjoy these productions as reader and viewer, audience and spectator, is to live in Beulah Land. To respond actively and imaginatively is to repel the Whore of Babylon and her Beast of many horns, to walk the streets of the eternal city 'in which we too may dwell if we choose.'… (más)