1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910966302903321

Autore

Bloom Harold

Titolo

The shadow of a great rock : a literary appreciation of the King James Bible / / Harold Bloom

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2011

ISBN

9786613279897

9781283279895

1283279894

9780300180015

0300180012

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (320 p.)

Disciplina

220.5/203

Soggetti

Bible as literature

RELIGION / Biblical Criticism & Interpretation / General

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- The Five Books of Moses -- Four Heroines -- David (1 and 2 Samuel to 1 Kings 2) -- The Prophets -- Psalms 1 -- Psalms 2 -- Proverbs -- Job -- Ecclesiastes -- The Song of Songs -- The Hidden Books -- Esdras -- Tobit -- The Wisdom of Solomon -- Ecclesiasticus -- The History of Susanna -- The Literary Merit of the Greek New Testament -- Mark -- John -- The Writings of Paul -- Hebrews -- James -- Revelation -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The King James Bible stands at "the sublime summit of literature in English," sharing the honor only with Shakespeare, Harold Bloom contends in the opening pages of this illuminating literary tour. Distilling the insights acquired from a significant portion of his career as a brilliant critic and teacher, he offers readers at last the book he has been writing "all my long life," a magisterial and intimately perceptive reading of the King James Bible as a literary masterpiece.Bloom calls it an "inexplicable wonder" that a rather undistinguished group of writers could bring forth such a magnificent work of literature, and he credits William Tyndale as their fountainhead. Reading the King James Bible alongside Tyndale's Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the



original Hebrew and Greek texts, Bloom highlights how the translators and editors improved upon-or, in some cases, diminished-the earlier versions. He invites readers to hear the baroque inventiveness in such sublime books as the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Job, and alerts us to the echoes of the King James Bible in works from the Romantic period to the present day. Throughout, Bloom makes an impassioned and convincing case for reading the King James Bible as literature, free from dogma and with an appreciation of its enduring aesthetic value.