THE EPIC/DRAMATISTS AND DRAMAS/SHORT STORY WRITERS AND SHORT STORIES/ESSAYISTS AND PROPHETS/POETS AND POEMS/NOVELISTS AND NOVELS: BLOOM'S LITERARY CRITICISM 20TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION

Philadelphia, PA: The Chelsea House, 2005. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. Philadelphia, PA: The Chelsea House, 2005. Hardcover. As New/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 2057 pages. Retrospective collections of essays on literature. One of the greatest literary achievements of our time. The Complete Set. Each volume is the First Hardcover Edition in its First Printing. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published by The Chelsea House in first print runs as hardcover originals only, each individually released volume is part of Harold Bloom's Literary Criticism 20th Anniversary Collection. Individually and collectively, The Collection celebrates literature and just as important, the epochal role that Harold Bloom has played as its most formidable and authoritative champion. The Uniform-Edition design by Takeshi Takahashi beautifully presents each volume as the integral part of a larger whole: Regular-sized volume format. Glossy pictorial hard boards with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. A brilliant drawing of Harold Bloom by various American cartoonist/artists, notably The New York Review of Books' David Levine, is reproduced on the cover of each volume. Printed on pristine-white, archival stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Without DJ's, as issued. Presents Harold Bloom's "Literary Criticism 20th Anniversary Collection". All six volumes, 2, 057 pages in all. Prolific and indefatigable, inhumanly and therefore genuinely so, the insomniac, workaholic Genius of Yale is the critical intelligence behind every piece. The volumes are "The Epic"; "Dramatists And Dramas"; "Short Story Writers And Short Stories"; "Essayists And Prophets"; "Poets And Poems"; and "Novelists And Novels". The greatest literary critic of our time turns out to be nothing more, and nothing less, than the greatest reader of our time. He has read more than anybody else: More completely, more intelligently, and more humanely. Harold Bloom does not subscribe to any extrinsic, ideologically motivated "theory" (unless intelligence, insight, and rapture constitute theory), but he does believe in three intrinsic standards: Aesthetic splendor, cognitive power, and wisdom. One can read the volumes "straight-through" over a period of several (sleepless) weeks or dip into them from time to time. Either way, one will surely go back to them over and over again for the rest of one's reading life, for illumination, enlightenment, and pleasure. Bloom reminds us above all, and we need to be reminded in a time of easy "gizmo" distractions, that reading is not oppressive but liberating, perhaps the most significant personal act a human being will make to assert his or her freedom. An absolute "must-have" set for Harold Bloom and literature reader/collectors. These titles are classics. As far as we know, this is the only Complete Set of the First Hardcover Editions/First Printings available online and is in especially and uniformly fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: The individual volumes available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare set thus. The greatest literary critic of our time. A fine collectible set. (SEE ALSO OTHER HAROLD BLOOM TITLES IN OUR CATALOG).