The other reviewers are missing the point. Blake did not believe in the Christian ideology enought to want to contradict the bible. He believed that god is a construction of the human imagination, the Poetic Genius (read "All Relgions are One" and "There is no Natural Religion"). To speak in terms of religiosity, he had to use Christian terminology (Ezekial, Isiah, Satan...) because the language of religion was created this way, and Blake was forced to speak in those terms before developing his own language system. The bible contradicts itself; Blake's writing and thinking transcend that superficial level.

As far as the ideas in this book contradicting the bible; that particular opinion is completely wrong. The only way one could think so is to have missed the fact that the entire book is a viciously ironic and satirical commentary on those who would claim to represent Christianity while in actuality profaning it. Only the "angels" miss this fact. And as far as C.S. Lewis is concerned, he is as weak when reading Blake as he is when reading Milton.

I fail to see how whether or not this book is contradictory to the bible is any indictation of whether it is good or not.

I hate to be the dissenting voice to all the gushing reviews for this book, but I thought it was weak at best. The plot was thin, the dialogue sophmoric, the character development was forced, and the overall portrait of the war was unrealistic. For example, the bushwackers that form the core of the book are almost invincible except at times that aid the story. In battles with even seasoned federal calvary, they rarely lose more than one or two men while wiping out dozens of enemies. They never suffer from hunger, even at a time when many farms were burned.

But, setting aside the lack of historical credibility, the book never evokes the feelings of the war or its human impact in a way that Charles Frazier did (I only bring up the comparision b/c of the quote on the paper edition). Bill, our main man here, never develops as a character- he just sort of lurches from phase to phase.

I wouldn't bother with this book- there are so many other novels of the Civil War worth your time.

THIS WAS AN EXCELLENT BOOK. I LOVED IT. IT TOOK ME BACK TO THAT TIME AND PLACE, AND GAVE ME A LOOK AT A GREAT HISTORICAL STORY. ONE REVIEWER WAS SO BIAS, I AM SURE HE WAS FOR THE OPPOSITE SIDE IN THIS STORY. HE MUST BE VERY UNHAPPY AND COWARDLY IN HIS APPROACHES TO NOVELS.

Some authors you read because the journey is better than the destination, but I find with Blake it's the opposite. His action and storytelling outweigh his poetry, although there is poetry, to be sure. He writes with a passion and moves with a purpose. And yes, as other reviews state here, he does not disappoint.

I used the Mathematics for elementary teachers for a college level course. The text is interesting and provides the reader/learner with a solid foundation of Problem solving skills in learning and teaching mathematics. It has several useful examples of the strategies as well as challenging problems that can be solved on ones own. The problem solving strategies are new in the respect that "it's not your mama's math." There are several types of problem solving skills that I was not aware of and will come in handy for teaching and learning because not everybody solves problems the same. The text works at applying concepts to "real classroom" setting. Many of the strategies presented are in line with the National Council Of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum and Evaluation Standards (NCTM)- the leading authority in the U.S. focusing on keeping standards in math curriculums across the country, to ensure that students are well prepared for future more complex mathematics. The chapters are followed by numerous challenging math problems to solve. And some of the answers are even in the back of the book so you can check yourself. A solid foundation of basic math operations and Algebra I is a must to keep up with the text. The only downside is that I wish there was a workbook to compliment the text. I found myself re doing the same problems in order to get the concepts down. It would have been better if there were more problems similar to the chapters. Another problem was that some of the answers in the back of the book were wrong.

Very fast receipt, well packaged, very well priced, and everything included. Outstanding service and will definitely consider buying used textbooks from this seller in the future!

blake's poems are not black ink on these newsprint pages...blake's poems are engraved plates wild and colorful...

but it's fantastic anyway blake is not The Lamb and not The Tyger

tirzah los orc urizen enitharmon vala rahab urthona, all divided and united in the cruelties of holiness...jerusalem the four zoas the book of urizen the song of los...echoing our cries.

I don't know upon what planet this poet was born, but it certainly wasn't earth. Blake is the ultimate Gnostic, the ascendent correspondent, the bringer of truth from regions we have no knowledge of. The core of his philosophy can be summed up in his assertion in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:" Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast...Isaiah answer'd. I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then perswaded, & remain confirm'd; that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God."

Blake is the poet of true revolution, true Romanticism and true spirit. This is the definitive volume of his life-work, without, it is true, the illustrations that augmented his genius. Yet there is no real necessity for etchings here, as the genius of his poetry will etch its own image in your mind if you are receptive to his universal symbolism. Blake was the first truly modern poet, prefiguring Mallarme, D.H. Lawrence, Baudelaire, in particular. He was also a great mythologyzer, the precursor of Campbell, Frazier, and even Alan Watts in many respects. The Penguin Edition is not illustrated, it's true, but there is so much to be mined here that one can easily lose oneself in the labyrinth of Blake's excavations.

We need Blake more, now, than Swedenborg ever did. Trying to compare Blake's complaints about death being the ultimate form of persuasion in the disputes of his day, religious though they might seem to us at this late date, with the doctrines that the authors of the items in this book are willing to contemplate, tends to make our own times seem unexciting, but it doesn't have to be this way. Now that so many people have computers with printers and numerous other methods of communicating with people all over the world, the stage is set for becoming familiar with the way that ideas in books and people interact to produce greater individuality, as can be shown in the crumbling of all kinds of organizations which relied on the authority of old doctrines, as resulted from the works of Blake and Swedenborg. We have this example of people who have already devoted much thought to the attempt to study the combination of the two, and this is precisely the kind of thing which we ought to understand best.

This book, BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG/ OPPOSITION IS TRUE FRIENDSHIP, edited by Harvey F. Bellin and Darrell Ruhl, is a collection. Many of the articles and lectures are short. Most compare the writings of William Blake with the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. Many of the people mentioned in the book were known to Blake, either at the formation of a church in 1789 in London, where Blake spent most of his life, or later, and where, much earlier, Swedenborg's books were printed due to religious restrictions imposed by the government of Sweden. Prior to reaching the age of 50, Swedenborg had been accepted as a leading member of society, who co-edited Sweden's first scientific journal in 1716, but his religious books were published anonymously. It should be noted that both Blake and Swedenborg "Self-published" (p. 6) the books for which they are known today, without commercial recognition in their own time, and that each saw instances in which society condemned people for believing more than was fashionable or proper. Much of this book is devoted to the doctrine of predestination, or however God might determine who could be considered saved, one way or another, society then being less inclined to take a comic view concerning that theological question than we are currently used to.

There are two engravings by Blake in color on the cover of BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG. The illustrations scattered throughout the remainder of the book are in black and white. On page 42 is a stark "Anatomical reference from Swedenborg's THE CEREBRUM," possibly one of the volumes referred to in the text: "In 1743-44, Swedenborg compiled a staggering four-volume treatise, THE BRAIN. In it, he was the first to discover the functions of the cerebellum, pituitary gland and spinal fluid, the localization of thinking and memory in the cerebral cortex, and the integrative action of the nervous system." (p. 42). It was then that "a new muse began to emerge, sending seismic shock waves to the very core of this objective man of the Age of Reason. The process started with a series of disturbing dreams, which he carefully recorded in a private journal." (p. 42).

The early short sections of BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG offer a lot of comparisons, with Swedenborg much more familiar "with leading scientists and scholars in Sweden, England, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, and Bohemia" than Blake, who was apprenticed to an engraver after studying at Pars School of Drawing (1767-1772), but was then a "student at Royal Academy Schools (1779)." (p. 5). The discoveries of Blake were of states of mind, now considered "mythology, personifying aspects of consciousness" or in the area of printing. Blake also "Discovered an acid-etching process for creating relief-type, copper printing plates." (p. 6).

My high opinion of Blake is due to MILTON : A POEM, BLAKE'S ILLUMINATED BOOKS : VOLUME 5, whose hero is famous for the great poem, "Paradise Lost," describing Satan more fully than most people know themselves. MILTON is mentioned occasionally in BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG, and, most importantly, for mentioning Swedenborg on pages 16, 29 and 153, where MILTON A POEM is quoted:

O Swedenborg! strongest of men, the Samson
shorn by the Churches,
Shewing the Transgressors in Hell, the proud
Warriors in Heaven,
Heaven as a punisher, & Hell as One under Punishment.

The cosmic scheme in which Blake seems to be describing the spirit world he might have adopted from Swedenborg seems most complete in "Opposition Is True Friendship" (1985) by Harvey F. Bellin, which spends pages 39-43 on Swedenborg's life and pages 43-48 on ` "A Theatre Representative of the Lord's Kingdom" Swedenborg's Theology.' "The Swedenborgian Songs" (1968) by Kathleen Raine discusses the themes of Blake's SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE, with attention to the poem "For Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love" which I found mentioned on pages 78, 88 (in "The Human Face of God" (1985) by Kathleen Raine), 111 (in "New Light on C. A. Tulk" by Raymond H. Deck, Jr.), 149 (in "Blake and Swedenborg" (undated, from THE NEW CHURCH HERALD XXX, London) by H.N. Morris). The Contents are divided into "Analyses of Blake's Connections to Swedenborg," "Historical Contexts," and "Swedenborgian Postscripts," but much of the material seems to be covered from the same point of view. For excitement, reading Blake alone might be better, but this view offers a deeper understanding, and the opposition which Blake expressed in his satire of Swedenborg, THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, (c. 1790-93) might free some people from doctrines which seemed necessary, or previously conformed to their idea of sanity.

William Richey, in his book, Blake's Altering Aesthetic, discusses how Blake is rooted deeply in history and through his influence changed the history of things... His critical analysis is brilliant. He weaves a book that truly delves deeper into Blake's philosophical influence on himself and other's. Throughout this work, a new presentation of Blake the man with his super self critical nature and and distinctive personality as seen through his letters and works. Basically, a new outllok on the psychology of Blake. All this together makes for a hefty mental read but surely suggested for all lovers of Blake's intensity and vision. Also for those dediated to new thought in this direction.

Because Blake and Hegel employ systems far from any plausible means of similitude, it is a difficult endeavor upon which Punter embarks. he does an adequate job of observing these similarities, yet the feel of the work is a Blakean mimesis of Hegel. His work implies that he is more acquainted with Blake than with Hegel, yet his premise is interesting enough. furthermore, this is the only book out there to try and syncretize two such obscure and little read (and less understood) figures. although only good--not great--it is an essential for any student of Blake and Hegel.

Blake is both a great mystic and a great poet. If you enjoy either poetry or mysticism or both you will like his poems. He tends to work on a large scale. For example all of the poems in Songs of Innocence fit a scheme and have a counterpart in Songs of Experience. I like this edition because it is very handsome with nice binding, and includes the major works of Blake. Now all you need is a book of his engravings and paintings.

This book is written in installments: first-person narratives by people who know the main character. Most of them are only a few pages long, and few of the narrators repeat. Thus, it's impossible to really sympathize with any of them. The main character himself, gunslinger John Wesley Hardin, is hard to like: we never get into his head, and from the outside he looks like just another gangster. The reader sympathizes briefly when he's wounded and imprisoned, only to be put off when he commits his next act of mindless violence or drunken stupidity. The post-Civil War American West, as presented by the author, whacks the reader over the head with violence, lawlessness, and what I felt were rather gratuitous scenes of sex with prostitutes. I'm all for "gritty" historical fiction, but here it sometimes seemed like the author was just trying to show off. Without emotional content, grit is just an irritant. Having said all that, the book is intelligently written and apparently well researched, and it might be somebody else's cup of tea more than it is mine.

There was nothing like the American West in the history of the world and figures like Hardin exemplify it; deadly, brave, sad and foolish all at once. His death seemed a relief because by 1895 there was no place left for the bravado of a gunslinger who would draw over an insult.

I found the writing format, the telling through other's eyes, less engaging and certainly less tasty than Blake's current style.

This was some book ! Absolutely outstanding in every respect - as a story, in its style, very exciting, excellent dialect, really funny in spots, ..... Chapter by chapter I went from hating the arrogant ... (John Wesley Hardin), to wanting to be a Hardin. If he really was as portrayed in this book (which I doubt), he was mostly the kind of person I respect - leave him alone and he'll buy you drinks all night long and otherwise give you the shirt off his back. Meddle in his business, get in his face, or harm his family and he'll whip you or kill you. Now don't get me wrong. Any reader would try to see where they fit in, in that day and time and I am pretty much left with the sad conclusion that I would have probably been a sorry, boot-licking peddler of some kind . . . . not a Hardin.

David W. Erdman has managed to describe the details in Blake's drawings, for William Blake's Complete Illuminated Works with a Plate-by-Plate Commentary, but the text which is the main feature of most of Blake's plates is sometimes faint, and occasionally unclear. Due to the comment in BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG, on the source of its subtitle, Opposition Is True Friendship, about plate 20 of Blake's MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, that:

"beneath this `reptile of the mind,' partially obscured by Blake's thick patina of watercolor pigments in several copies of this hand-painted book, is Blake's final comment on his battle with Swedenborg's angelic alter ego:

Opposition is true Friendship." (Harvey F. Bellin, BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG, p. 38).

The detail which is shown on page 38 of BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG looks more like "Opposition is True !"

Page 117 of Erdman's THE ILLUMINATED BLAKE has a copy of Plate 20, copy I, which hardly even shows the T of True, and a small detail from Copy E with the words "you whose works" just before the last line "are only Analytics," so the little extra squiggle that it provides might be a subliminal comment by Blake on those who think we have the power to explain anything. The drawing of the serpent is ambiguous enough that Erdman's comment, "In I the artist has carelessly colored the angular wave seen through the first loop as though it were part of the serpent's body," (p. 117) might be an indication that Blake intended to show a bit of the tail of the serpent close to the serpent's head, symbolic of logic biting its own tail, or arguments which are circular in nature. As a wave, it looks more like the serpent than the other waves, though the black and white illustrations in both books are not entirely clear, Erdman's book has better shades of gray.

Comparing plates of "The Divine Image," SONGS 18g on page 59 in Erdman's book, with the copy on page 88 of BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG, Erdman's is clearer, but page 88 of BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG also prints the words ("To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love") alongside the illustration, so it is easier to read. Erdman's attempts to explain the figures make this plate more interesting, mentioning Lazarus? Adam? Eve? and Jacob's ladder.

There is a "Holy Thursday" from Innocence, SONGS 19I on page 60, and a "Holy Thursday" from Experience, SONGS 33I on page 75. The big disappointment is that "The Tyger," SONGS 42I on page 84 is so difficult to read. I thought that I might remember that poem, but hardly well enough to read it in this book.

The only possible complaints that one could have with this book are 1)there is no color reproduction and 2)it is a softcover. However these same factors contribute to the wonderfully low price as a hardcover, full-color reproduction would bring it into the price range of the Princeton Blake. I must make a reference to one of the other reviews and say that in contradiction to the reader from Portugal's review this edition DOES contain all the Illuminated works with the exception of the one page work The Laocoon which is not exactly one of the illuminated works. Erdman's commentary is excellent, as is to be expected from one of the three major Blake scholars of the twentieth century. This commentary makes the book a value even if one already owns the Princeton series.

I used this book for the illustrations in my thesis on Blake. Although they are not in color, the sharp, black lines of the drawings accentuate a side of Blake that is often overlooked. That being his obstinate adherence to the "True Style of Art. The Art of Invention Not of Imitation." The Art of the "straight & wirey bounding line." All of the illuminated books are included in this volume, with commentary on each plate. This is an excellent book for the burgeoning Blake scholar. In fact, I used this book to make a photocopy of plate 10 from America a Prophecy for the tatoo I had carved on my right arm. I had the tatoo artist add the color from the Princeton editions of the illuminated books, which are the very best copies of Blake available if you can afford them.