{"product_id":"the-traveller-in-the-evening-morton-d-paley-9780199227617","title":"The Traveller in the Evening: The Last Works of William Blake","description":"There has never been a book about Blake's last period, from his meeting with John Linnell in 1818 to his death in 1827, although it includes some of his greatest works. In \u003cem\u003eThe Traveller in the Evening\u003c\/em\u003e, Morton Paley argues that this late phase involves attitudes, themes, and ideas that are either distinctively new or different in emphasis from what preceded them. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter an introduction on Blake and his milieu during this period, Paley begins with a chapter on Blake's illustrations to Thornton's edition of \u003cem\u003eVirgil.\u003c\/em\u003e Paley relates these to Blake's complex view of pastoral, before proceeding to a history of the project, its near-abortion, and its fulfillment as Blake's one of greatest accomplishments as an illustrator. In \u003cem\u003eYah and His Two Sons\u003c\/em\u003e the presentation of the divine, except where it is associated with art, is ambiguous where it is not negative. Paley takes up this separate plate in the context of artists's representations of the Laocoön that would have been known to Blake, and also of what Blake would have known of its history from classical antiquity to his own time. Blake's Dante water colours and engravings are the most ambitious accomplishment of the last years of his life, and Paley shows that the problematic nature of some of these pictures, with \u003cem\u003eBeatrice Addressing Dante from the Car\u003c\/em\u003e as a main example, arises from Blake's own divided and sharply polarized attitude toward Dante's \u003cem\u003eComedy\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe closing chapter, called \"Blake's Bible,\" is on the Bible-related designs and writings of Blake's last years. Paley discusses \u003cem\u003eThe Death of Abel\u003c\/em\u003e (addressed to Lord Byron \"in the Wilderness\") as a response to its literary forerunners, especially Gessner's \u003cem\u003eDeath of Abel\u003c\/em\u003e and Byron's \u003cem\u003eCain\u003c\/em\u003e. For the \u003cem\u003eJob\u003c\/em\u003e engravings Paley shows how the border designs and the marginal texts set up a dialogue with the main illustrations unlike anything in Blake's \u003cem\u003eJob\u003c\/em\u003e water colours on the same subjects. Also included here are Blake's last pictorial work on a Biblical subject, \u003cem\u003eThe Genesis\u003c\/em\u003e manuscript, and Blake's last writing on a Biblical text, his vitriolic comments on Thornton's translations of the Lord's Prayer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Morton D. Paley\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0199227616\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780199227617\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e OUP Oxford\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/06\/2008\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 348\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.97lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.78d","brand":"Morton D. Paley","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48517275648255,"sku":"9780199227617","price":45.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_4f2f20d9-115f-4d12-8c70-3c9a5ce01f7b.jpg?v=1778731068","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-traveller-in-the-evening-morton-d-paley-9780199227617","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}