Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Bloom . . . has many arresting things to say and says them, often, with exquisite precision. He is, by any reckoning, one of the most stimulating literary presences of the last half-century—and one of the most protean, a singular breed of scholar-teacher-critic-prose poet-pamphleteer."—Sam Tanenhaus, New York Times Book Review Sam Tanenhaus
Review
“Bloom reveals his own magisterial, sometimes mischievous self, in his meditations on the masters with whom he connects.”—Iain Finlayson, The Times The New York Times Book Review
Review
“Ah, then theres Harold Bloom, Americas giant of a literary critic.. . . In The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life, Bloom pulls off a masterly connecting of the dots through the literary canon and his own life with his usual breathtaking eloquence.” —Publishers Weekly Iain Finlayson - The Times
Review
“An autumnal summing-up, winding through ‘the labyrinth of literary influence to conclude, ‘[t]hat labyrinth is life itself. ”—Kirkus Reviews Publisher's Weekly
Review
"As defender of the Western canon, the controversial Bloom has no equal. . . . Bloom's elegant and accessible writing will be welcomed by serious readers."—Nancy R. Ives, Library Journal Kirkus
Review
Praise for Harold Bloom:“Harold Bloom is one of the greatest literary critics of his time . . . a man who like Tennysons Ulysses is a part of all that he has read.”—Washington Post Nancy R. Ives - Library Journal
Review
“….. [A] treasure-trove of a book……This volume is a testimony to Blooms assertion that he is still ‘hopelessly passionate about the poets I loved best. “—John Montague, Irish Times Washington Post
Review
"Bloom thinks in the sweep of millennia, of intellectual patterns that unfold over centuries, of a vast and intricate labyrinth of interconnections between artists from Plato to Pater."—Michael Lindgren, Washington Post John Montague - Irish Times
Review
Praise for Harold Bloom: “Arguably the most influential critic of the last quarter century. He elevates critical writing to the level of literature itself.”—New York Times Book Review Michael Lindgren - The Washington Post
Review
Praise for Harold Bloom:“Harold Bloom reminds us what matters. He is our most valuable critic.”—Boston Globe New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
"Literary criticism, as I attempt to practice it," writes Harold Bloom in The Anatomy of Influence, "is in the first place literary, that is to say, personal and passionate."
For more than half a century, Bloom has shared his profound knowledge of the written word with students and readers. In this, his most comprehensive and accessible study of influence, Bloom leads us through the labyrinthine paths which link the writers and critics who have informed and inspired him for so many years. The result is "a critical self-portrait," a sustained meditation on a life lived with and through the great works of the Western canon: Why has influence been my lifelong obsessive concern? Why have certain writers found me and not others? What is the end of a literary life?
Featuring extended analyses of Bloom's most cherished poets Shakespeare, Whitman, and Crane as well as inspired appreciations of Emerson, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats, Ashbery, and others, The Anatomy of Influence adapts Bloom's classic work The Anxiety of Influence to show us what great literature is, how it comes to be, and why it matters. Each chapter maps startling new literary connections that suddenly seem inevitable once Bloom has shown us how to listen and to read. A fierce and intimate appreciation of the art of literature on a scale that the author will not again attempt, The Anatomy of Influence follows the sublime works it studies, inspiring the reader with a sense of something ever more about to be."
Synopsis
Our most revered critic returns to his signature theme
"Literary criticism, as I attempt to practice it," writes Harold Bloom in The Anatomy of Influence, "is in the first place literary, that is to say, personal and passionate."
For more than half a century, Bloom has shared his profound knowledge of the written word with students and readers. In this, his most comprehensive and accessible study of influence, Bloom leads us through the labyrinthine paths which link the writers and critics who have informed and inspired him for so many years. The result is "a critical self-portrait," a sustained meditation on a life lived with and through the great works of the Western canon: Why has influence been my lifelong obsessive concern? Why have certain writers found me and not others? What is the end of a literary life?
Featuring extended analyses of Bloom's most cherished poets--Shakespeare, Whitman, and Crane--as well as inspired appreciations of Emerson, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats, Ashbery, and others, The Anatomy of Influence adapts Bloom's classic work The Anxiety of Influence to show us what great literature is, how it comes to be, and why it matters. Each chapter maps startling new literary connections that suddenly seem inevitable once Bloom has shown us how to listen and to read. A fierce and intimate appreciation of the art of literature on a scale that the author will not again attempt, TheAnatomy of Influence follows the sublime works it studies, inspiring the reader with a sense of something ever more about to be.
About the Author
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. He lives in New Haven, CT.