The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy [Paperback]

Harold Bloom (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Books; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394743237
• ISBN-13: 978-0394743233
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,678,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Harold Bloom is a Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and a former Charles Eliot Norton Professor at Harvard. His more than thirty books include The Best Poems of the English Language, The Art of Reading Poetry, and The Book of J. He is a MacArthur Prize Fellow, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees, including the Academy's Gold Medal for Belles Lettres and Criticism, the International Prize of Catalonia, and the Alfonso Reyes Prize of Mexico.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A flawed but fascinating literary excursion, October 23, 2008

By 

William Timothy Lukeman - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy (Paperback)

Harold Bloom himself has long disowned this novel [edit: or perhaps not, see Joe Kenney's informative comment below] ... but it's definitely worth reading, for all that it's wildly uneven. He's exploring some knotty ideas here, sometimes to the detriment of the story, sometimes to illuminating effect. You can't take it as a straightforward novel, though. This is his attempt at visionary literature, which often has a dreamlike, quicksilver quality to it -- and can also become ponderous if the author can't control it.

First & foremost, you MUST read David Lindsay's nightmarish classic, "A Voyage to Arcturus," a novel highly praised by Bloom. This is crucial, because Bloom's own narrative is essentially a retelling & a sequel of sorts to that genuine original. Oblique reference is made to the previous journey of Maskull, Krag, and Nightspore, although not by name; but readers of Lindsay will recognize it & realize where they stand here.

It's not entirely successful, as Bloom's remarkable talents in literary criticism don't translate as well to the task of writing fiction. Yet if it's a failure, it remains a compelling one. Not many writers would be willing to tackle such a project in the first place. You can sense Bloom struggling & toiling to make the novel cohere as you read, and you can see him falter at times. But there are also moments where everything works.

You'll notice that I'm not going into the actual plot. Beyond saying that it involves a flight to another world, one in which Gnostic philosophy is explored & lived out by the characters, I'll remain silent. Read Lindsay's "A Voyage to Arcturus" first -- and if that strikes a mysteriously resonant chord within you, then give Bloom a try as well. If nothing else, it'll be quite an experience!

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yuck, June 11, 2000

By 

El Tigre TA Esmitz (VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy (Paperback)

I read this book out of curiousity. Harold Bloom is undoubtedly one of the great literary critics of recent times--what would his own fiction read like?

Ugh. This book is cast in the mythological prose of a Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast. This is low quality fantasy. The real star of the book is Bloom's eccentric philosophy of Gnosticism and no thought at all is given to characterization or euphony of language. I think Bloom is trying to write a new testament here, not a novel. He fails. This is an embarrassing piece of work.

Do try his criticism, though. When Bloom is on his home court, he's engaging.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing fantasy based on Gnosticism, July 20, 2004

By 

JLind555 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy (Paperback)

"The Flight to Lucifer" is a fantasy, nothing more, nothing less; set on a distant world where time and space shift back and forth and where the conflicts of first-century religion are still being played out. Harold Bloom's story begins with an Aeon, Olam, descding to earth to bring two men, Valentinus, a reincarnation of a Gnostic prophet, and his young warrior escort Perscors, back to Lucifer on a quest to help Valentinus recover the call that motivated his previous life. For Perscors, the quest is a search for a transcendental principle, but to reach it, he has to do battle with enemies both divine and semi-divine, to finally reach his inner discovery of his own uniqueness.

If you're looking for an in-depth study of Gnosticism and other religions that flourished during the early Christian era, you'll be disappointed because you won't find it here. You'd be better off perusing Elaine Pagels' "The Gnostic Gospels". But as an unusual adventure story, "The Flight to Lucifer" is interesting and absorbing. Bloom subtitled his book "A Gnostic Fantasy", and on that level, it's a good read.