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Harold Bloom
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The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy Paperback – January 1, 1980

by Harold Bloom (Author)
3.1 3.1 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
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The Flight to A Gnostic Fantasy Harold Bloom First Vintage Books Edition May 1980
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  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage Books
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1980
  5. ISBN-10
    0394743237
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0394743233
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Books; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (January 1, 1980)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394743237
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394743233
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.1 3.1 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

About the author

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Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom

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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.

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3.1 out of 5 stars
9 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Tim Lukeman
    4.0 out of 5 stars A flawed but fascinating literary excursion
    Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2008
    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!
    25 people found this helpful
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  • Johnny
    3.0 out of 5 stars Good but nothing to write home about !
    Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Just another fantasy in the world of make believe .
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  • Kyle Pelletier
    1.0 out of 5 stars Pure, unadulterated dreck
    Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2021
    To call Bloom's prose neophytic would be an insult to schoolchildren everywhere. The proof is in the pudding: if literary criticism had an even passing relationship with the art of writing fiction, Bloom would have been the guy to show it. This is a creatively and artistically bereft work notable only for the celebrity of its author. Sean Penn is a superior author, and that's saying something.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Jack Rensselaer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Jack Kirkpatrick Greenwhich CT
    Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2000
    Great read and thought bending proposition.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • JLind555
    4.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing fantasy based on Gnosticism
    Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2004
    "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.
    17 people found this helpful
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  • El Tigre TA Esmitz
    1.0 out of 5 stars Yuck
    Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2000
    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.
    25 people found this helpful
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  • David Lawrence
    1.0 out of 5 stars CANT
    Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 1999
    Utter nonsense, lacking any shade of imagination!
    11 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • R. Sinclair
    1.0 out of 5 stars Through Others Eyes
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    This is a dreadful book and I suspect most copies will be bought by those who have read David Lindsays Voyage To Arcturus on which it is based. Reading like a third rate alchemical script, it tries to re-imagine Lindsays book as a gnostic tale and fails to either illuminate Gnosticism or add anything except a little more grandeur to Lindsays original work. There have been suggestions that Harold Bloom has 'disowned' this book and attempted to remove it from circulation - thus adding in some way to its rarity and mystique. If anything it shows how difficult writing Arcturus at the level of Lindsay might have been. Lindsays own book was ignored when first published - around 600 copies only sold. What happened to those that were unsold ? Pulped or remaindered - either way it is as rare as hens teeth. For those seeking further enlightenment with regard to Voyage to Arcturus, Harold Blooms book Agon (non-fiction) is excellent. 'Lucifer' is worth collecting as a companion piece to Arcturus but I suspect that if the authors name had been anything but Harold Bloom, this novel would never have seen the light of day in print. It is perhaps poignant that Lindsay was an unknown author and Arcturus, a masterpiece was misunderstood and failed to sell and is now an expensive rarity as a first edition while 'Lucifer' was written by an excellent and well known critic, as fiction is rather poor and so misunderstood but is shaping up to become an expensive rarity as a first edition.
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