J.R.R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings

Bloom's Modern Critical Views

by Harold Bloom

The revered author of the fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings also had a distinguished career as a professor at Oxford University and as a scholar specializing in Anglo-Saxon literature. This new edition is enhanced by a chronology, bibliography, notes on the contributors, and an introductory essay by noted literary scholar Harold Bloom.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.

Reviews

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the essays are very insightful. The book has a wide range of critical styles, which were written over a long span of time. It also has critiques of Tolkien critics. It mainly covers "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit". It does not go into Tolkien's other works in detail, but it does mention them to contextualize the primary focuses of the critiques. Harold Bloom's introduction is only two pages long.

Only one essay upset me; Roger Sale's horrible essay said that the trilogy "Lord of the Rings" and two of Tolkien's essays were the only good things he ever wrote. "The Silmarillion", in his opinion is not readable.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, it has to be nice to Harold Bloom, who contributed nothing to this book, other than a short introduction in which he says that the Hobbit is a good children's book, but LOR sucks. The articles are sometimes interesting, but they aren't evend edited; rather, they are just plucked out of where they originally appeared and stuck between these covers. Some additional inight on Tolkein, but you have to fight to find it.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit rambley, but I liked the last essay by R. L. Purtill, "Myth and Story" and the writer's attempt to define sci-fi (or SF, in general) as distinct from fantasy. The appearance of a dragon, like Chekhov's gun, is a telling sign of fantasy, for instance. SF tends towards ideas, but not necessitating support or proof: "It cannot cite data, for in fiction the data can be invented to suit the author. If it gives detailed arguments or chains of reasoning, it ceases to be a story and becomes a disguised philosophical treatise. What a story can do is help us to understand an idea and help us see what it feels like to hold that idea." [with italics on "can" and "understand," notably]. Interesting for the writer to make the distinction between a "gimmick story," an "adventure story" and an "idea story," and why James Bond is not SF but C.S. Lewis's space trilogy is. Otherwise I didn't get much from the Tolkien essays, and even less from Harold Bloom. "Lit. and Lang." was almost interesting, but probably more interesting to read Tolkien's ideas about language (the primary sources) themselves.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nice read. Expansive. Visionary and ethical tale.

[Scott Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh.

[Jayden King · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of essays on Tolkien's seminal work. It's definitely worth reading for anyone studying fantasy or Tolkien specifically, although I did find some of the topics quite niche. Bloom himself doesn't offer much insight, giving a very brief introduction and one short piece, but he makes it clear he is not a fan of much of the subject matter to follow.

[Marylu Sanok · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite authors and a great book