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RUIN THE SACRED TRUTHS

Name: RUIN THE SACRED TRUTHS
Author: Harold Bloom
ISBN: 0674780280

POETRY AND BELIEF FROM THE BIBLE TO THE PRESENT

by Harold Bloom ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1988

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An unguarded, somewhat informal study of poetic struggle and human faith, by the unsinkably prolific Harvard dynast of modern literary criticism. Bloom (Poetry and Repression, Shelley's Mythmaking, etc.) has never been so critically intimate as in this pseudotestimonial on belief and poetry. Personal affinity rather than academic intrigue seems to have determined the literary pantheon surveyed here—beginning with the Hebrew Bible (which he admits to reading in old age as consolation for solitude), ranging through Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Freud, Kafka, and Beckett. Bloom's elusive subject is the "sublime," defined as the realm of spiritual struggle "between truth and meaning" that provides literature its transcendent moments. For Bloom, Shakespearean sublimity lies in the playwright's "cognitive power"—which, as in the figure of Hamlet, "contains cultural history." For Milton, it is supernal ambition—the faith that his own life "incarnated truth." Freud and the Bible share for Bloom an awesome reverence for authority and memory—an obsession he also finds central to sublimity in Kafka and Beckett. Bloom constructs this majestic rubric with his usual erudition and grace, leavened with in-jokes, witticisms, and surprising jests. French theory is one floating target; his own academic importance is another. Finally, there is deadpan: what does one make of Bloom's claim that Milton's Satan is more like Reagan than Freud? Perhaps Bloom's most accessible book, and probably his most endearing: a bounty of coy surprises and typical leaps of brilliance.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1988

ISBN: 0674780280

Page Count: 218

Publisher: Harvard Univ.

Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1988

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BRIGHT BOOK OF LIFE
by Harold Bloom

- BOOK REVIEW
TAKE ARMS AGAINST A SEA OF TROUBLES
by Harold Bloom

- BOOK REVIEW
THE AMERICAN CANON
by Harold Bloom ; edited by David Mikics

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.