Abstract
Blake’s recently discovered votes for Charles James Fox in the 1790 Westminster election represent his only recorded electoral participation.1 Such records rarely reveal nuanced ideological positions, but Blake’s support for Fox suggests his politics were complex, not simply always radical. This chapter contextualises Blake’s votes and shows how The French Revolution (1791) dramatises problems of representing ‘the people’ politically, drawing upon Enlightenment critiques of superstition to demystify ancien régime France. The poem encodes political and philosophical positions in the imagery of apotheosis, an analysis of which reveals tension between Blake’s Whiggish and more radical tendencies.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fallon, D. (2017). ‘Spirits of Fire’: Ambiguous Figures in The French Revolution . In: Blake, Myth, and Enlightenment. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39035-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39035-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-39034-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-39035-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)