I’ve read several of Harold Bloom’s books about literature. Bloom’s new book, The Daemon Knows discusses the 12 American writers Bloom most admires (his two personal favorites are Whitman and Hart Crane). If I were teaching a literature class, I’d mine The Daemon Knows for all the biographical and critical backgrounds on these 12 writers. Bloom discusses each writer’s major works in detail And here is where I had a problem. About a third of A Daemon Knows is quoted material. Yes, of the 500+ pages about 200 pages are quotes from the works of Whitman, Melville, Emerson, Dickinson, Hawthorne, James, Twain, Frost, Stevens, Eliot, Faulkner and Crane. That’s a big chunk of this book. And Bloom rambles from topic to topic. That can be annoying, too. But, if you’re interested in any or all of these classic American writers, A Daemon Knows will enlighten you. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Why These Twelve?
Daemonic Preludium
1: Walt Whitman and Herman Melville
2: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson
3: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James
4: Mark Twain and Robert Frost
5: Wallace Stevens and T. S. Eliot
6: William Faulkner and Hart Crane
Coda: The Place of the Daemon
Notes
Index
And it seems like heis unwilling to admit that anything great has been written in the last 80″years. It’s the professor who never rethinks his courses.
Patti, Harold Bloom is 84 and still teaching. He seems comfortable with these 12 writers.
Interesting choices. There are several references to Bloom (characters who took his classes, for instance) in the stories of David Gates, A HAND REACHED DOWN TO GUIDE ME.
Jeff, Bloom obviously loves teaching if he’s still doing it at age 84. He’s very knowledgeable and insightful. But Bloom does ramble a bit.
As Patti observed, he’s stuck in his own syllabus. Still, this isn’t the type of book I’d read regardless of that, probably.
Rick, if any of these 12 American writers interest you then you’ll find plenty of worthwhile information in THE DAEMON KNOWS. If they don’t interest you, you can safely skip it.