Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law

By E.P. Thompson and E. P. Thompson

Book Overview

E. P. Thompson's long-awaited book on William Blake was published shortly after the historian's death in August 1993. Acclaimed as one of his best and most deeply felt works, it appears now for the first time in paperback. Written with a vivid passion, and bearing the marks of Thompson's lifelong struggle against authoritarian and anti-humanitarian politics both at the level of the individual and of the state, Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law is a profound enquiry into the structure of Blake's thought and the character of his sensibility. Its qualities are among those which place Thompson himself in the same tradition of dissenting values and non-conforming radicalism represented by Blake some two hundred years earlier.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521469775
• ISBN13: 9780521469777
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Muggletonian Archive

This is an brilliant piece of literary criticism that should be of great interest to anyone interested in English radicalism and antinomianism. The real gem here -- the part that I have returned to read again and again-- are the appendices which include a short account titled "The Muggletonian Archive". Here E.P. Thompson recounts his meeting with "last Muggletonian", the last living adherent to a 17th century sect, and the role he played in seeing that the church's archives were preserved in the British Library. A great story. Thompson maintains, if I remember correctly, that Blake's mother may have been a Muggletonian and that songs and tropes from that tradition had a great influence on Blake's mythology. You do not need to be convinced by Thompson's argument to find this book engrossing and thought-provoking. Well worth seeking out.