"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
The New York Times Book Review )
“Ah, then there’s Harold Bloom, America’s 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
(
Publisher's Weekly )
“An autumnal summing-up, winding through ‘the labyrinth of literary influence’ to conclude, ‘[t]hat labyrinth is life itself.’ ”—Kirkus Reviews
(
Kirkus )
"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
(Nancy R. Ives
Library Journal )
Praise for Harold Bloom:
“Harold Bloom is one of the greatest literary critics of his time . . . a man who like Tennyson’s Ulysses is a part of all that he has read.”—Washington Post
(
Washington Post )
"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
(Michael Lindgren
The Washington Post )
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
(
New York Times Book Review )
Praise for Harold Bloom:
“Harold Bloom reminds us what matters. He is our most valuable critic.”—Boston Globe
(
Boston Globe )
Praise for Harold Bloom:
“Bloom is fighting the good fight for literature.”—The Observer (U.K.)
(
The Observer )
Praise for Harold Bloom:
“[Bloom] is the reader as human medium, an instrument through whom inspiration strikes: in turn he renders visible the lineament of other writers’ imaginations while articulating the generally inchoate and undeveloped responses of the average reader. . . . Magnificent. . . . He is never less than memorable.”—Peter Ackroyd,
The Times (London)
(
The Times )
“Reading Bloom read the great writers of the canon is an immense pleasure; reading Bloom read Bloom is a revelation. Like his ideal poets, Bloom brings us fire and light, apt tools for reading in the dark.”—James Angelos, Ugarte
(James Angelos
Ugarte )
Bloom “has been one of America's most fascinating literary critics for nearly half a century. In his newest book, The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life, Bloom revisits the ideas that made him a star—and explains, in a straightforward way, why he's spent his career trying ‘to build a hedge around the secular Western canon.’ ”—Josh Rothman, Brainiac Blog, Boston Globe
(Josh Rothman
Brainiac Blog, Boston Globe )
“If Bloom is right—and I believe he is—that ‘literary criticism . . . ought to consist in acts of appreciation,’ he has fulfilled that mandate once again in The Anatomy of Influence.”—Robert Pogue Harrison, New York Review of Books
(Robert Pogue Harrison
New York Review of Books )
"Bloom pulls off a masterly connecting of the dots through the literary canon and his own life with his usual breathtaking eloquence."—Publishers Weekly
(
Publishers Weekly )
"This finale to his illustrious career in literary criticism will not disappoint fans of Bloom . . . Essential."—L. McMillan, Choice
(L. McMillan
Choice )
Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011 in the Language and Literature category.
(Choice Magazine
Choice Outstanding Academic Title:Language and Literature )
