BOOKS
Scrutinizing Blake
BLAKE. By
Peter
Ackroyd. Alfred A. Knopf. $35.00
The explosion of critical interest in William Blake touched off by
Northrop Frye's
Fearful Symmetry
in 1947 is still reverberating, though it has
moved into new dimensions since then. Studies of his archetypal symbol–
ism, explications of his metaphysical system, explorations of his political and
religious thought, psychoanalytic interpretations both Freudian and Jungian,
close readings of poetic texture, revaluations of his place in English paint–
ing, discussions of the "composite art" of text and design in his illuminated
books, and most recently close study of his methods as a graphic artist: each
approach has widened the scope of our knowledge about Blake's work and
deepened our admiration for his achievement. In all this furor of critical
activity only biography has lagged behind: partly because of the magnitude
of the task of covering Blake's three careers as poet, painter, and engraver
spread over almost seven decades, but still more because of the sketchy
information about his life (1757-1827) as provided by the usual sources of
letters, journals, reminiscences and so forth. Not only was his life external–
ly quite uneventful, passed for the most part in poverty and obscurity, but
he was so little regarded in his time that few records of his existence were
preserved. Alexander Gilchrist's pioneering biography of 1863, however
inadequate it may seem today, is still the source on which most biographers
lean most heavily. But in the last few decades the work of editors, bibliog–
raphers, cataloguers and historically-minded scholars on many fronts has
accumulated a cri tical mass of information that offers a basis for a new por–
trai t of Blake in all his extraordinary fullness.
Peter Ackroyd, who has previously written the lives of T.S. Eliot,
Thomas Chatterton, and Charles Dickens, has now risen to this chall enge.
His biography of Blake is the first to draw on the full range of recent schol–
arship, and his skillful infusion of this new material adds depth and color to
the familiar outlines of Blake's life. He brings to his task the Blakean traits
of energy and enthusiasm as well as an infectious identification with his sub–
ject, and his book wi ll appeal to readers who have responded to the legend
of Blake while remaining bewildered by much of his work and unacquaint–
ed with the man behind it. Blake has long had his small groups of special
admirers-wealthy collectors of his paintings and illuminated books, stu–
dents in the 1960's claiming him as a fellow revolutionist, even drug addicts
fascinated by his hallucinatory power: Ackroyd aims at a wider, more gen–
eral and more prosaic audience. He gives us a biography for the age of
