Italo Calvino

Bloom's Modern Critical Views

by Harold Bloom (Editor)

Provides biographical information along with plot summaries, lists of characters, and critical views of the author's most famous short stories.

Genres: Nonfiction

100 pages, Library Binding

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

[Maddy]

Mostly skimmed this for ideas on Invisible Cities; was frankly a bit disappointed that several essayists just quoted Calvino more than they interpreted him. In some ways, I get it; Calvino isn't always shy to throw this theme out there directly. In other ways, I wanted more in depth analysis! (To be fair to the authors, I did skim the essay on semiotics due to excessive jargon. So maybe I missed some great ideas.) One idea that I liked: Calvino compares the limitations/abilities of three different sign systems that imperfectly describe our reality: language, cities and games.