Alter, Robert

Pen of iron : American prose and the King James Bible / Robert Alter. - 198 pages ; 23 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

America as a Scriptural culture -- Style in America and the King James version -- Moby-Dick : polyphonu -- Absalom! Absalom! : lexicon -- Seize the day : American amalgam -- The world through parataxis.

In this book, biblical translator and literary critic Robert Alter traces some of the fascinating ways that American novelists--from Melville, Hemingway, and Faulkner to Bellow, Marilynne Robinson, and Cormac McCarthy--have drawn on the rich stylistic resources of the canonical English Bible to fashion their own strongly resonant styles and distinctive visions of reality. --from publisher description

0691128812 9780691128818


Bible. English --Versions--Authorized--History
Bible--In literature


American literature--History and criticism.
Bible and literature

PS166 / .A46 2010