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The Shadow of a Great Rock

A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible
by Harold Bloom
The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible. Yale Univ. Sept. 2011. c.320p. index. ISBN 9780300166835. $28. REL
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To Bloom (Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale; The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life), only Shakespeare rivals the supreme literary merit of the King James Bible (1611). Its development by a group of more than 50 translators divided into six committees, five of which were chaired by an "undistinguished group of writers," produced an "inexplicable wonder" that Bloom analyzes in relationship not only to the Hebrew and Greek original versions, but also to various translations, especially those of William Tyndale, "the greatest English translator," of Miles Coverdale, and of the Geneva Bible (1560). Bloom writes as a literary critic and secularist deeply attracted to the linguistic beauty of the King James Bible; his literary appreciation remains mostly at the level of language; plot construction, characterization, setting, etc., are not his focus.
VERDICT At times idiosyncratic but often adulated, Bloom's literary criticism needs thoughtful consideration by linguistic and literary scholars, cultural historians, and Bloom admirers, as well as by the general public. The book is a tour de force and the result of a lifetime of critical pondering by a major critic.
Reviewed by Carolyn M. Craft, formerly with Longwood Univ., Farmville, VA , Sep 15, 2011
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