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Bloom, Harold : How To Read And Why

Scribner, New York City, NY, 2000

ISBN 0684859068

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 283 pages. Collection of critical essays on subject. Harold Bloom's passionate plea for literature and its revival as the focus of serious reading, it is his single most accessible book. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly copies that are signed on a tipped-in page. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Harold Bloom's "How To Read And Why". Essays that answer the "how" and "why" of the title by providing definitive examples of the "what". Harold Bloom has the simplest recipe for reading: Read the great books. Life is too short to waste on worthless bestsellers, pulp fiction, and mediocre authors. The only way one really learns how to read is by reading the most challenging works of literature. The "what" can never be separated from the "how", and once one realizes this, the "why" becomes self-evident: In the Multi-Media Age, people read because it still offers the deepest, most lasting pleasure. Bloom takes on the great works as if he were reviewing them for the next day's paper, and makes his case as a freelance intellectual and literary critic, dismissive and disdainful of all theory-based academic criticism. His skepticism about academic theory is nothing less than reassuring: When one reads a feminist, post-structuralist, or deconstructionist interpretation of literature, one learns more about feminism, post-structuralism, or deconstruction, not literature. The self-referential aspect of all post-modernist criticism is not just ideological, it is self-indulgent and stupid. As with every great critic, Bloom's particular enthusiasms have had an enormous impact: His essay on Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" cemented McCarthy's first-rank stature in contemporary American literature. His most readable and in many ways, most endearing book. An absolute "must-have" title for Harold Bloom collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Harold Bloom. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page, as copies available online are. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are in multiple subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. The greatest literary critic of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER HAROLD BLOOM TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0684859068.

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