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Lead book review

Harold Bloom finally betrays how little he really understood literature

Harold Bloom devoted his life to literature – but he had little feeling for words, says Philip Hensher

21 November 2020

9:00 AM

21 November 2020

9:00 AM

Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles: The Power of the Reader’s Mind Over a Universe of Death Harold Bloom

Yale, pp.672, 25

Tennyson’s poem ‘Mariana’ has gone everywhere in the world since 1830. A professional scholar in Uruguay, Papua New Guinea or New Haven, Connecticut, reading the lines ‘Weeded and worn the ancient thatch/Upon the lonely moated grange’ might want to ask a few questions. Do English houses ever have moats? (Yes — Ightham Mote and Madresfield Court are famous examples.)

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