The Dense but Endlessly Illuminating the Mirror and the Lamp by M.H Abrams by Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom took his PhD at Yale in 1955 and was a Fulbright scholar at Cambridge University studying under new critic Wim Sat who he would go on to dedicate the work to. He then taught from 1955 all the way up to 2019 until four days before his death because he didn't want to break one of the longest habits of his life. Even for a die-hard fan of Bloom like myself I have found myself putting The Mirror and The Lamp by M.H. Abrams through its paces. This is not a book that I've seen explicated particularly well anywhere and for a reason it's difficult.