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Rating: 
Summary: A must have!
Review: I recommend that any fan of William Blake buy this volume and the other 5 in the series. The books are beautiful, large, and handsomely bound. Each book is reproduced in full color, using a six-color printing process rather than the standard four. The pages are heavy, opaque and have a gorgous lustre indicating very high quality paper. The text of each book accompanies the color reproductions in standard typeface with very competent commentary to boot.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful images, great helps for the general reader
Review: These three works in some ways develop the characters Blake used in the three Continental Prophecies. But don't expect any kind of coherent development or to be able to fathom out any kind of understandable timeline. This is Blake after all. Most of this book is helpful introduction, commentary, notes, and supplementary materials. "The First Book of Urizen" is the longest of the three and the most illustrated. It has images that are absolutely unforgettable. They have a power and emotional impact that holds the viewer. I have met people who find them repulsive. I think they emotional impact makes them uncomfortable so they want to get away from the images and so push them away. "The Book of Ahania" and "The Book of Los" are much shorter and the illustrations are limited to the title page and the last plate ("The Book of Los" also has an illustration on the opening page of text.). The other pages are done in particularly fine Blake script. As with the rest of the volumes in this series the quality of reproduction is very high and these images are delightful to study. The scholarship is quite good and the writing is focused on opening these works up to the general reader - at least a general reader who enjoys studying Blake and is willing to put in the time it takes to fathom these rather wonderfully strange works. A treasure for the shelf of any Blake lover.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful images, great helps for the general reader
Review: These three works in some ways develop the characters Blake used in the three Continental Prophecies. But don't expect any kind of coherent development or to be able to fathom out any kind of understandable timeline. This is Blake after all. Most of this book is helpful introduction, commentary, notes, and supplementary materials. "The First Book of Urizen" is the longest of the three and the most illustrated. It has images that are absolutely unforgettable. They have a power and emotional impact that holds the viewer. I have met people who find them repulsive. I think they emotional impact makes them uncomfortable so they want to get away from the images and so push them away. "The Book of Ahania" and "The Book of Los" are much shorter and the illustrations are limited to the title page and the last plate ("The Book of Los" also has an illustration on the opening page of text.). The other pages are done in particularly fine Blake script. As with the rest of the volumes in this series the quality of reproduction is very high and these images are delightful to study. The scholarship is quite good and the writing is focused on opening these works up to the general reader - at least a general reader who enjoys studying Blake and is willing to put in the time it takes to fathom these rather wonderfully strange works. A treasure for the shelf of any Blake lover.
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