TY - BOOK AU - Mee,Jon TI - Dangerous enthusiasm: William Blake and the culture of radicalism in the 1790s SN - 0198122268 : U1 - 821.7 MEE PY - 1992/// CY - Oxford, New York PB - Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press KW - Blake, William, KW - Politics and literature KW - Great Britain KW - History KW - 18th century KW - Revolutionary literature, English KW - History and criticism KW - Radicalism KW - Enthusiasm in literature KW - Radicalism in literature KW - Prophecies in literature KW - France KW - Revolution, 1789-1799 KW - Foreign public opinion, British KW - Influence N1 - Gratis; Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-245) and index; A Note on Texts -- Introduction: Blake the Bricoleur -- 1. 'Every Honest Man is a Prophet': Popular Enthusiasm and Radical Millenarianism -- 2. 'Northern Antiquities': Bards, Druids, and Ancient Liberties -- 3. 'Forms of Dark Delusion': Mythography and Politics -- 4. Blake, the Bible, and its Critics in the 1790s -- Conclusion N2 - Dangerous Enthusiasm considers Blake's prophetic books written during the 1790s in the light of the French Revolution controversy raging at the time; his works are shown to be less the expressions of isolated genius than the products of a complex response to the cultural politics of his contemporaries. William Blake's work presents a stern challenge to historical criticism. Jon Mee's new study meets the challenge by investigating contexts outside the domains of standard literary histories. He traces the distinctive rhetoric of the illuminated books to the French Revolution controversy of the 1790s and Blake's fusion of the diverse currents of radicalism abroad in that decade. The study is supported by a wealth of original research which will be of interest to historians and literary critics alike. Blake emerges from these pages as a 'bricoleur' who fused the language of London's popular dissenting culture with the more sceptical radicalism of the Enlightenment. Dangerous Enthusiasm presents a more comprehensively politicized picture of Blake than any previous study. UR - http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0603/92011156-d.html ER -