Vala or The Four Zoas: A Facsimile of the Manuscript, a Transcript of the Poem and a Study of its Growth and Significance by G.E. Bentley

xviii,220pp, 145 manuscript pages on plates. Light grey-brown cloth with gilt decoration to spine and front board. Light brown pictorial dustwrapper, slightly edgeworn and with a small patch neatly repaired on rear panel. Dustwrapper protected in a removable clear plastic sleeve. The first complete facsimile of Vala, or The Four Zoas, a prophetic work begun by Blake in 1797, in the wake of his immense series of illustrations for Edward Young's poem Night Thoughts; indeed, Vala was written on proof pages for Night Thoughts. 'Like Young's poem, Blake's is divided into "Nights" and treats some of the same vast subjects—life, death, immortality' (ODNB). This scope was echoed in the physical and temporal scale of the work: Blake used larger plates than ever before, at 41x32 cm, and continued work on the epic for ten years, before finally leaving it unfinished in 1807, with the poem in a manuscript draft. Bentley's life-size b/w facsimile includes a transcription, an extensive critical study of the poem’s 'growth and significance', and tables of contents and physical details (lines reused elsewhere, watermarks, etc.); it remains the only facsimile publication. Northrop Frye wrote that '(t)here is nothing like the colossal explosion of creative power in the Ninth Night of The Four Zoas anywhere else in English poetry'; the work as a whole, he says, 'a cyclic vision of life from the Fall to the Last Judgment' is 'in a single form the totality of what Blake came into the world to say' (Fearful Symmetry, pp. 305, 269). Robust packaging. Tracking is always added to USA orders. It can be added to other overseas orders on request. Used books are exempt from USA tariffs. No ownership marks. Binding sound, text unmarked. Size: 47 x 36 cm.…