Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?

by Harold Bloom

In one of his most inspiring books yet, Harold Bloom, our preeminent literary critic, takes the reader from the Bible through the twentieth century, searching for the ways literature can inform lives. Through comparisons of the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes, Plato and Homer, Johnson and Goethe, Cervantes and Shakespeare, Montaigne and Bacon, Emerson and Nietzsche, Freud and Proust, and finally discussions of the Gospel of Thomas and St. Augustine, Bloom distills the various—and even contrary—forms of wisdom that have shaped our thinking.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Literature, Criticism, Religion, Books About Books

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

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

[Iliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is an exercise in self-indulgence and narcissism, that fact in no way diminishes the clarity of presentation, and the quality of discussion. A purely academic discourse on wisdom, especially one that includes the Book of Job, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Montaigne, Geothe, Emerson, and others, provides endless food for thought. Read this one with a pencil in hand.

[Richard Legault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of Harold Bloom’s WHERE SHALL WISDOM BE FOUND

If you are not a reader who takes to being nudged a bit beyond your comfort zone, then forget Bloom. If you are not a reader who likes having your private little tower of what you think you know, shaken to its foundations, then forget this book and this review. Go instead and watch some re-runs of The Simpsons. Really, you'll be much happier.

Most readers and reviewers commenting here, so far, just don't know how to engage with a teacher/critic such as Bloom. Unless you are some sort of pervert, you don't go to Nepal to climb on top of a Sherpa. You go to climb Everest. In the Himalayas of world literature, Bloom is your Sherpa, par excellence. However, the minute you let him go beyond that, if you allow him to be the main goal of your reading, you've lost your way. You need to look over his shoulder, to see past his over-inflated ego and to keep your eye on the mountain up which he strives to guide you. It is the mountain that matters, not the guide. And, much more importantly, you idiot, it is your climb that matters, not his. If Bloom was still with us, and found you disagreed with this, he'd would probably find something much worse than 'idiot' to call you. Moreover, he would also tell you that if you don’t have what it takes to go mucking around in the Himalayas, don’t waste your money on the guide.

Bloom takes his title from Job 28:12: "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?" Moreover, Job is his first stop on this mini Himalayan tour - little more than a sampler really - of worldly wisdom. I found he did his job (no pun intended) for me perfectly well. I let him complete the tour, getting me to the top of his little hill, and back down again. Then it was all up to me, to go off – solo - on my own trek. So I decided to start, just as he did, with Job.

What a discovery that was!

On my own, I spent the next year and a half touring little else besides The Book of Job. I wasn’t entirely on my own for very long. I quickly found, along the way, centuries of other commentators, countless signs of other climbers and other Sherpas who had travelled this route before. The Book of Job has, over the centuries, baited and boggled much better minds than I can ever hope to have: Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, Maimonides, Aquinas, Bacon, Calvin, Luther, Milton, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Voltaire, Kant, Blake, C. S. Lewis, Hegel, Goethe, Tennyson, Wolfe, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Jung, Frost, Auden, just to name a few. The vast majority treat it as a book of ‘theodicy’, even though that word did not exist before the late comer Leibniz invented it in 1710. (Yes, this is the same Leibniz who invented, concurrently with Isaac Newton, the calculus. It is the notation of Leibniz, not Newton’s, that graces modern mathematics textbooks.) Théodicée, as he first spelled it, in French, is in general, the issue or the problem of evil. In theology, it is the question of why a good God would allow, or even make, bad things happen to good people.

Here is Bloom’s take: “The Book of Job is traditionally described as theodicy, akin to John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the supposed purpose of each the justification of God’s ways to men and women. Job is the greatest aesthetic triumph of the Hebrew Bible, but I am baffled by its reputation as theodicy.”

So there I was, on my solo tour, following in the footsteps of some 2,000 years of commentators who all assured me Job was about theodicy. Needless to say I was baffled by Bloom’s bafflement. If Job was not theodicy, then what was it? Finding a satisfying answer would be my climb, my journey.

Where I wound up and what I found, not even Bloom could have guessed.

I did in the end, find my own answer, a pretty good one I think, all my own and utterly unlike anyone else’s. Far be it from me to spoil a good plot. If you really want to know precisely where, in Job, I now know 'wisdom shall be found', you will have to read my book: The Book of Job - Theodicy or Science

Thank you, Harold, not for leading me there, but for teaching me how to find my own way.

Richard J Legault
2 Nov 2021

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this: “Reading alone will not save us or make us wise, but without it we will lapse into the death-in-life of the dumbing down in which America now leads the world, as in all other matters.”

[Mike Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

To answer, “Not here” would be overly harsh. Prof. Bloom can help you explore, but you will have to find wisdom yourself, which in fairness, is probably what he would recommend. It is frustrating to follow along with such brilliant knowledge and background only to meet such depressingly flawed conclusions.

Readers would do well to follow the advice of William James shared in the coda, and know what to overlook. Prof. Bloom will make you think, but hopefully not evaluate like him. He would have been wiser to recognize rather than despair at Augustine’s message that “we must read, but cannot hope for enlightenment. Prof. Bloom seems to hope that he can find a writer who offers a complete wisdom. His mistake is to take each other as a whole rather than accept that they, like him, reach moments of brilliance, but ultimately fail to perfectly advise. That is not to say we should not read, but we should not only read.

[Evans McGowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me forever to plow through, but I kept coming back to it because there was nuggets of wisdom, although surrounded by seemingly extraneous musings and long block quotes from the authors he studies. Pretty much exclusively western-centered and 'old white men' written by an old white man, take it with a grain of salt. I will keep it on my shelf to go back to my margin notes for thoughtful insights. Whether or not there is any practical implication, well...

[Asa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primarily academic and intellectual.
Intellectual rigor and critical engagement. Wide range of classic texts. Elitist or narrow.
Systemic issues? Political or liberatory critique?
High. Deep engagement with literature. Erudite. Rich vocabulary.

Intellectually rich. Lacks a focus on empathy or systemic critiques.Western intellectual tradition.

[Jorge Morcillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uno de los libros que más me gustan de Bloom. Escrito en gran parte como una especie de "Vidas de Plutarco en crítica literaria" ese modo de confrontar a dos autores al mismo tiempo, ya sea Shakespeare-Cervantes o Montaigne-Pascal, por poner dos ejemplos, me parece que enriquece mucho el texto.

Luego hay que sumar su habitual dosis de hermetismo y gnosticismo literario y ya tenemos otro librazo. Adolece de una visión excesivamente occidental pero hay que reconocerle su habitual entusiasmo. Algunas páginas son maravillosas.

[Adil Khan]

When I read literary criticisms such as the ones presented here, I am reminded of how little I've read of classical texts, and how much more I need to read. It is in equal parts a humbling and exciting feeling.

I will DNF for now, hoping that a future (better-read) me will return at a later date and gain more from this book than my present self has.

[Timothy Muller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can such a book be written without attempting to enforce one’s own a priori idea of what constitutes wisdom? I think it can, but Bloom has instead attempted to promote his own world view.

I certainly do not feel any wiser having read this book and, except for Plato (whom I need to reread) and portions of the Bible (though not the portions Bloom selects), I would not consult any of the writers he mentions in a search for wisdom. I have no objection to his inclusion of St. Augustine, though he is not me cup of tea.

Bloom’s selection it highly idiosyncratic; it is evidently a result of a crises in his own life. I would like to explain why I think the authors (one by one) don’t belong here, excluding several I don’t know enough about, but that would take up to much space.

Each person, like Bloom, can make up a list for themselves. One might select The Power of Positive Thinking, I’m OK, You’re OK, How to Win Friends and Influence People or Oprah Winfrey’s latest effusion - whatever floats your boat. I do not mean to imply that Bloom’s selection is not one of much greater literary excellence, and much more worth reading than those I have mentioned. However, promoting one’s own personal list as somehow generally valuable is very risky business; I think many people, if pressed, could do a better job of suggesting books containing wisdom, though they may lack Bloom’s presumptuousness.

There is another, and I think better approach: someone so learned as Bloom could easily make a list of those books which have been considered by many generations to have conveyed wisdom. He opted instead to present largely those who confirmed his own nihilist/gnostic (whatever gnostic means to Bloom) views, and arguably in some cases, by strong (or weak) misreadings.

Let’s try for a better list, based on the idea that there are books from which many people derived wisdom over many generations.

Tao Te Ching
Analects of Confucius
The Awakening of Faith by Ashvaghosha

A Selection from the Upanishads
Bhagavad Gita
Atma-Bodhi Shankaracharya
The Sayings of Ramakrishna

Selections from The Bible (a heterogeneous collection from which each can only select)
Plato
Meditations Marcus Aurelius
Enneads Plotinus
The Consolation of Philosophy Boetius
Revelations of Divine Love Julian of Norwich

Again, Bloom, vastly more knowledgeable than I, could do better than this quick-and-dirty list. I wish he had.

Bloom’s book is a depressing example of how little may result from a liberal education. I set great store by the value of literature, and find the decline of the liberal arts in favor of mere vocational training very dispiriting. I also share Bloom’s disdain for those he calls the “resenters,” and I appreciate his validation of the “common reader,” of which he considers himself to be one (as do I), and of which there appear to be many (more than I had thought), as demonstrated on this website.

But Bloom is one of the most widely read people of his generation and what does he know? Unfortunately, it seems, not very much.

[Victor Pérez Negrón · Rating 3 out of 5]

El nivel de erudición con que Bloom interpreta lo que escribe siempre es muy exigente e ilustrativo, más cuando los autores son de su predilección. Shakespeare aparece en todo este ensayo sobre la sabiduria, no creo que haya sido el más sabio de los literatos, para mí Plantó y Jesucristo en occidente tendrá el puesto más excelso. Mis lecturas de Platón, debo precisar, se situan en un nivel esoteríco y sus diálogos son acerca del alma y ser. Occidente tiene muchos problemas con esta exégesis. Más allá, el libro de Bloom es una mezcla de interpretación personalísima y deconstruye el paradigma occidental monoteista del judaismo y cristianismo más la tradición laica de autores por los que pasa vinculado toda la producción histórica y cultural del hombre occidental. Su aportación es un vistazo general de las pautas que confección lo que creemos es la sabiduria o alguien sabio. EL texto, una vez el autor abandona la vida, sobrevive y educa a toda aquella persona suficientemente sensible para recibir el mensaje cifrado y oculto en los exisiquistos dialogos, ensayos, aforismos y poemas que estas luminarias nos legaron. Ellos, como pocos, logramos penetrar en los misterios de la naturaleza y en forma escrita lo pusieron para los que nunca lograremos lo mismo.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, certainly not the best or most enlightening book I've read recently, but Mr. Bloom sparked my interest in other writer's works, mostly Cervantes, but Plato, Homer, Goethe and Nietzsche. I did gain a bit more clear understanding behind the writings of the thick veil we call religion. I can appreciate the Old Testament more as a book of philosophy rather than some miracle work directly dictated by God. The biggest distraction was his choice to praise Freud so as a wisdom writer. Then to neglect to mention Jung, especially when comparing and contrasting styles of writers that influenced one another. I may be a bit biased (certainly the author was) as I see Jung as one the the greatest wisdom writers of all time, bridging "primitive man" with the ancient mystics and religions with that of modern man. I suppose Freud should be mentioned if only in that he helped shape Jung, but then that would have required many more chapters.

[David Given Schwarm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stole this from my mom's library in Oregon.

I am a huge Harold Bloom fan, largely because he taught Camille Paglia, but also because he loves Shakespeare. this book, like many of his books, had a lot of promise, but unfortunately kind of died off towards the end--specifically, during the lengthy Proust quotes.

Highlights for me were his thoughts on Cervantes [I had not seen him go so deep on Don Quixote before] and the fact that he completely ignores the Romantics. I liked his thoughts on Emerson a lot & the stuff distinguishing Novel vs. Essay vs. Etc. was really interesting.

A book well worth reading, but not his best.

[Paola · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ho l'impressione di uno di quei libri il di cui autore dispone di un ego ipertrofico, necessitando stivali da pescatore per poterlo leggere.
Qualcuno dovrebbe dirgli che l'ipotesi documentaria (JEDP) inerente gli autori del Pentateuco, negli ultimi anni é stata messa seriamente in discussione e parrebbe non raccogliere più consensi.
La copertina é orribile.

[Charles Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased this book from a discount bin at my first time at one of my favourite bookstores, the Strand (in NYC). It was my first Bloom purchase, even though I'd been introduced to him in classes. The reading was enjoyable, but there was a lot that proved disagreeable so I ended up not enjoying the content as much as I enjoyed the expression of it.

[Samara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a good university lecture: easy on the eyes, but so dense with information, you have to read it slowly. Erudite.

[Norman Voisey]

I have a love/hate relationship with Bloom. In this one he selects the Gospel of Thomas for Christian authors offering wisdom? I revere him and feel sorry for him.

[Renato Garín · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dónde se encuentra la sabiduría es un ensayo en el que Harold Bloom, reconocido crítico literario, explora diversas tradiciones y textos fundamentales en busca de los orígenes y la esencia de la sabiduría. A lo largo del libro, Bloom recurre a grandes referentes de la literatura universal, desde la Biblia hasta Shakespeare, pasando por autores como Dante o Cervantes, para indagar cómo las culturas de Oriente y Occidente han definido y transmitido esta noción a lo largo de los siglos.

El estilo del autor combina erudición y pasión, lo que convierte la lectura en un recorrido fascinante por la historia de las ideas. Su amplio conocimiento de la tradición literaria permite trazar puentes conceptuales entre obras y épocas distintas, al tiempo que invita al lector a replantearse sus propios conceptos sobre lo que constituye la sabiduría. Sin embargo, en algunos pasajes, el enfoque se vuelve un tanto denso, lo que puede dificultar el acceso a lectores menos familiarizados con la crítica literaria y los clásicos.

Aun así, en conjunto, se trata de una obra valiosa que aporta perspectivas refrescantes y un alto nivel de rigor académico. Por ello, Dónde se encuentra la sabiduría merece una nota de 4 sobre 5, pues ofrece una aproximación sólida a la búsqueda de la sabiduría a través de la literatura, aunque en ocasiones exige un esfuerzo considerable al lector.

[Steve Chisnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sometimes wonder how Bloom wrote so many books. But after reading Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?<?i>, I begin to understand that Bloom is capable of musing at length. The book reads like an ambling (but not rambling) exploration of powerful thinkers across the Western classical age, liberally peppered with extensive quoted passages from these figures, between which fall Bloom's considerable perception and vocabulary. It is as if we met him in a small office library and posed the titular question, then allowed him to become whimsical, replete with the presumptions that there are no greater writers than Shakespeare and Montaigne (because the patriarchal Canon may be scrutinized but is ever inviolate) or that one may learn more from Whitman than from Plato (hmm). This does not mean that the book fails at any level for which it reaches; it is a powerful survey with considerable insight on key thinkers along the theme of "wisdom literature" (one of three criteria for great works, says Bloom, the others being aesthetic splendor and intellectual power--there must be other books on these). What is missing? Any culture or gender but Western male. And the wit and depth found in his larger works like Fearful Symmetry.

[Rex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to say this was a deeply thoughtful and inspiring book, but much of the time I found myself scratching my head saying "What the...?" Okay, I may be retired (i.e., my brain's not so supple), but I like to think I'm not a fool. However, after reading this I'm not as confident of that as I might have been before. I fail to see the point of the book beyond Bloom's own existential crisis which was the genesis of the book and I have my doubts he found what he started out looking for.

I like Bloom, and I'm foursquare with his defense of the literary canon, but this book, I don't know, leaves me cold?? I learned some new things about Freud, but I skipped most of Proust, and I plan to take Emerson more seriously and to read Montaigne more closely, but beyond that.... Maybe if I'd read it in a few days instead of a few pages over several months it might have made more sense.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a Harold Bloom completist, even though he frequently annoys and sometimes outright offends me (CN: random small blurtings of racism, sexism, homophobia, of the old-white-academic-dude kind). This is not one of his best, but there are beautiful phrasings, beautiful ideas, and beautiful short passages from other books as well. The chapter on Freud and Proust is the only one I wish I hadn't bothered with.

[Eva Villar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pseudo ensayo en búsqueda de la sabiduría. El autor muestra su gran ego, imponiendo sus opiniones más que sus argumentos, donde muestra a lo largo de todo el libro su filia hacia Shakespeare, elevándolo como el más sabio de los sabios. El autor considera que la sabiduría se encuentra en la religión y en el arte. Los grandes filósofos conocidos a penas son tratados en esta obra.

[Tyrone_Slothrop (ex-MB) · Rating 3 out of 5]

La letteratura vista da un esteta gnostico…..

Opera di critica letteraria in cui Bloom, dipingendo a tinte forti con mano sicura i profili dei più grandi autori della storia, ci spiega perchè leggere e cosa trovare nei libri. Non un libro semplice (ci vuole un buon background in filosofia e letteratura americana per non perdere il filo tra Emerson, Montaigne e Samuel Johnson), ma molto ricco, specie nel narrare molto chiaramente lo scontro tra Platone e Omero, cioè tra la filosofia e la poesia per il dominio sulla cultura greca. L'autore è molto onesto nel rendere chiare le sue idee e le sue preferenze: se siete degli esteti, un filo gnostici e molto poco razionalisti, vi troverete d'accordo con lui....

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chose not to read this book. Got through the Introduction. The concept is interesting and the writing style seems professorial. I'd rather not spend a whole book focused solely on Western religion and white men.

[Susan Schefflein · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always with Bloom, this is a profound look at our sources of wisdom. Many writers mentioned here. If you give me a quiz on the thesis of all this I may flunk. But Shakespeare and Montaigne are my true loves so it was worth reading.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 / 5.0

Nice intellectual jaunt. some references and connections are less than clear.

Minimal derogatory commentary on current state of education

[Arturo Herrero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Job y Eclesiastés. Platón con Homero. Cervantes y Shakespeare. Montaigne y Francis Bacon. Samul Johnson y Goethe. Emerson y Nietzsche. Freud y Proust. Evangelio de Tomás. San Agustín.

[April · Rating 1 out of 5]

Portentious. Thank you for letting us know how smart you are without really saying anything at all. Cervantes content was the only saving grace.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book as I strive to understand what it means to be wizard. And since the archetypal wizard is defined by wisdom, I have been seeking out books like this one, works by distinguished scholars exploring the notion.

By any other author perhaps, this book would have been a failure, but by a scholar who has read broadly, assimilated what he learned in reading and who has thought about what he learned, this was a wonderful read -- and helpful to me in my project.

That said, the book reads more like a transcription of Harold Bloom's ramblings (interspersed with quotations from the writers studied and scholars who have studied them) than an actual argument, thoughtfully constructed. Yet, they are Harold Blooom's ramblings. And that makes this book worth reading.

[Francesca Lorenzini · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Queste mie pagine nascono da un'esigenza personale, rispecchiando la ricerca di una sapienza che sia ingrado di portare chiarezza e conforto di fronte ai traumi dell'invecchiamento, della convalescenza dopo gravi malattie, della perdita delle persone che amiamo."
Bloom traccia un'analisi degli autori che ricercano la saggezza più o meno esplicitamente a partire dai testi sacri ebraici, passando per Goethe fino a Freud.
Indicato come approfondimento del corpus letterario degli autori qui esplorati; necessita di una buona conoscenza della loro produzione.

[John Hancock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloom brings authors from several traditions into a conversation that raises questions concerning wisdom, poetry and philosophy. Bloom demonstrates with erudition why Shakespeare's King Lear and Hamlet, for example, have as much, if not more, to teach us, than even the Bible. Although I do not agree with this premise, Bloom provides interesting perspecives on the Western Cannon and which authors deserve the most attention and why.