The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry

Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence has cast its long shadow of influence since it was first published in 1973. Through an insightful study of Romantic poets, Bloom puts forth his central vision of the relations between precursors and the individual artist. His argument that all literary texts are a strong misreading of those that precede them had an enormous impact on the practice of criticism and post-structuralist literary theory. The book remains a central work of criticism for all students of literature.

Written in a moving personal style, anchored by concrete examples, and memorable quotations, this second edition of Bloom’s classic work maintains that the anxiety of influence cannot be evaded – neither by poets nor by responsible readers and critics. A new introduction, centering upon Shakespeare and Marlowe explains the genesis of Bloom’s thinking, and the subsequent influence of the book on literary criticism of the past quarter of a century.