Harry Levin (1) (1912–1994)

There are only a few books of literary criticism that I am ever tempted to reread. Harry Levin’s The Power of Blackness is one of them. It captures better than any book I have read the yin-yang interplay in the American soul of the dour Puritan’s perception of a howling spiritual wilderness with our illusory sunny romantic optimism. His first chapter is titled “The American Nightmare,” which may be what becomes of the American Dream. Levin notes that love stories are rare in Poe, show more Hawthorne, and Melville. They often have a dark, ironic twist: Hester Prynne’s deadly affair with Dimmesdale, Poe’s morbid fascination with dead girls, and outcast Ishmael, first in bed with Queequeg and then afloat on his lifesaving coffin. Levin is an eclectic critic, using all the tools of formalism (especially image study), biographical criticism, and the emerging fields of comparative literature and culture criticism. His prose is clear and without pretension. 5 stars. show less

Although somewhat outdated, Levin's study of the theme of "overreachers" in Christopher Marlowe's plays remains one of the more influential studies of Marlowe. Levin's ideas have shaped how scholars have thought of Marlowe's protagonists for more than fifty years. Well worth reading both for its analysis and for the insight it gives into how critics have thought of Marlowe's work over the years.

A very readable analysis of the darker side of the Romantic era, this book is a very broad overview of the work of Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville. The author touches upon most of each writers' works, major and minor, and links them all together in how they approach the negative side of human nature. Though it certainly helps to be familiar with these works, I found it very understandable (I'm particularly lacking in my knowledge on Melville, but found that chapter quite interesting).

Buying this book was a mistake. I thought the "myth of the golden age" referred to antiquity, but the author actually discusses poetic mythology. He presents a jumbled collection of poetry weakly tied together by a common subject: fantastic paradises of various kinds. He stretches his gallery of authors from Plato to Freud, so his idea of "the Renaissance" is quite fluid. I have absolutely no interest in poetry so I laid this book to rest after a quick browse.