Shorter Notice The Life of William Blake. By Alexander Gilchrist.
Edited by Ruthven Todd. (Everyman Library. 3s.) AMONG the most_ readable books which yet cannot be described as great books, Gilchrist's original Life of William Blake takes a high place. From it and from original, Robinson's Diary (which; by the way, is not included in Mr. Ruthven Todd's biographical list, although mentioned in his introduction) we get the any vivid picture of Blake, the man, far surpassing that of all later writers and comparable for liveliness only with TrelawneY's Recollections of Shelley and Byron. The original Gilchrist Life is now a rare and expensive book, and its inclusion as a new addition in Everyman's Library is most welcome. The edit° has had the happy idea of revising all Gilchrises- quotations from Blake according to Mr. Geoffrey Keynes' standard text. Ile has also illustrated the present edition with Blake's wood-cuts to Virgil, which help to make up for the lost pictorial attractivenes5 of the original edition. It was also a happy thought to Pre Samuel Palmer's exquisite description of these woodcuts 100 the frontispiece. _
Previous page
