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William Blake vs the World - John Higgs

William Blake vs the World

By: John Higgs

Paperback | 9 August 2022 | Edition Number 1

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Poet, artist, visionary and author of the unofficial English national anthem 'Jerusalem', William Blake is an archetypal misunderstood genius. His life passed without recognition and he worked without reward, mocked, dismissed and misinterpreted. Yet from his ignoble end in a pauper's grave, Blake now occupies a unique position as an artist who unites and attracts people from all corners of society, and a rare inclusive symbol of English identity.

Blake famously experienced visions, and it is these that shaped his attitude to politics, sex, religion, society and art. Thanks to the work of neuroscientists and psychologists, we are now in a better position to understand what was happening inside that remarkable mind, and gain a deeper appreciation of his brilliance. His timeless work, we will find, has never been more relevant.

In William Blake vs the World we return to a world of riots, revolutions and radicals, discuss movements from the Levellers of the sixteenth century to the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s, and explore the latest discoveries in neurobiology, quantum physics and comparative religion. Taking the reader on wild detours into unfamiliar territory, John Higgs places the bewildering eccentricities of a most singular artist into context. And although the journey begins with us trying to understand him, we will ultimately discover that it is Blake who helps us to understand ourselves.
Industry Reviews
Lets in a glittering stream of revelatory light . . . Higgs's prose has a diamond-hard clarity. Before long you will find you are examining yourself as much as you are examining Blake . . . Fascinating - THE TIMES

Rich, complex and original, Higgs takes us to places that even Blake himself might have found surprising

Laudable . . . We cannot understand Blake without understanding what he meant by imagination or taking seriously his visions. Higgs does this admirably, by exploring what we know about the mind while maintaining, for our secular times, the sacred quality of Blake's attention - SPECTATOR

Absolutely wonderful! This book managed to make Blake's mind and mythology understandable to me at last - for that I am truly grateful

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