Bloom’s Literature offers a comprehensive resource for the study of literature. The wide range of material in this award-winning database includes content from Facts On File’s extensive literature collection; hundreds of Harold Bloom’s essays examining the lives and works of great writers; thousands of critical articles published by noted scholars; extensive entries on literary topics, themes, movements, genres, and authors; more than 4,300 video clips; more than 2,700 full-text poems; and more than 9,000 discussion questions on a range of literary topics.
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From Critical Insights: An essay is presented on the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It reveals that the story involves psychic and supernatural influences on the emotions and imagination of the narrator Roderick Usher. The author cites Poe's expertise in arousing a sense of earthly terror which remains vague, hinted, and mysterious.
Streaming Video from Films On Demand: n this introduction to Edgar Allan Poe's life and work from the Famous Authors series, viewers follow Poe's early life and fortunate adoption by the Allans. Poe's relationship with Frances Allan was tender, but he and John Allan did not get along. His stepfather sent him away to university and then cut him off completely. In response, Poe went to Boston and joined the army, but persisted writing. Eventually being dismissed from West Point, he went to live with Poe relatives in Baltimore and continue his writing and publishing. There he fell in love with his young cousin Virginia and brought her to Richmond, Virginia and later to New York and Philadelphia, to live with him throughout his literary ups and downs. (36 minutes)
This classic tale of revenge and murder depicts a victim lured to his doom by the false promise of riches—in this case, a highly prized cask of vintage wine. Pomerleau portrays both victim and villain with consummate skill as greed is punished with inescapable and eternal imprisonment. (20 minutes)
Character overview; Critical essay; Work overview; Biography; Plot summary
"The Cask of Amontillado." Short Stories for Students, edited by Ira Mark Milne, vol. 7, Gale, 2000, pp. 47-67. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2695400014/GVRL?u=avl_jeff&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=ea5a43fb. Accessed 6 Oct. 2021.
Streaming Video: This is Melville's sardonic and symbolic story of a copyist at a Wall Street law firm who refuses to conform, responding to all requests with, "I prefer not to." Autobiographical in its despair over the public's failure to understand the writer, prophetic in its foreshadowing of 20th-Century Absurdism, "Bartleby the Scrivener" provides a window into the work of Melville and a convincing argument that he may be at his best in the short story medium.
Streaming Video from Films On Demand: his introduction to Herman Melville's life and work from the Famous Authors series begins by introducing the city of New York, Melville's hometown, and the influence living in the busiest maritime port in the world had on his work. Melville eventually left home to work on a sailboat, and soon went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to become a crew member on a whaling ship, an experience that he used when writing the masterpiece Moby-Dick. The film details the dangerous work of whaling and Melville's experiences at sea. (34 minutes)
Streaming Video: Was there evil lurking in the gloomy New England woods the night that young Goodman Brown went on his secret errand? Or did he bring the evil with him, locked within his own heart? This program features an outstanding adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale-shot on location in historic Salem-that deftly captures the story's mystery and menace. In addition, a discussion of the life of Hawthorne and the Salem witch trials provides the historical context for this dark gem of American fiction.
Sterling, Laurie A. “How to Write about ‘Young Goodman Brown.’” Bloom's How to Write about Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chelsea House, 2017. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=4556&itemid=WE54&articleId=45764.