A Map of Misreading was published by Oxford University Press in 1975 and serves as the practical companion to The Anxiety of Influence — where the earlier book set out the theory in abstract terms, A Map of Misreading demonstrates it through sustained close readings of specific poems. The “map” of the title refers to Bloom’s attempt to chart the mechanisms of poetic influence with the precision of a cartographer — showing exactly how later poets transform earlier poems into the raw material of their own achievement.
The central chapters trace a lineage: Milton revises the Bible; Wordsworth revises Milton; Keats revises Wordsworth; Tennyson and Browning revise Keats; Stevens revises Whitman. Each revision involves what Bloom calls “misprision” — a deliberately creative misreading that distorts the original in order to open space for the new. The close readings are virtuosic — Bloom’s ability to read poems against their precursor poems, hearing the earlier text ghosting beneath the later one, is demonstrated at extraordinary length and with extraordinary detail.
The book also extends the theoretical framework: Bloom integrates his six revisionary ratios with Kabbalistic concepts (the Sefirot, the doctrine of Tzimtzum or divine contraction) and with Freudian defense mechanisms, creating a syncretic critical system of considerable complexity. For many readers, the theoretical apparatus is excessive — but the close readings stand on their own, and the book remains essential for anyone interested in how influence actually operates in poetic tradition.
Collecting A Map of Misreading
First edition (Oxford University Press, New York, 1975): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $50–$150
- Without jacket: $15–$30