The surface dazzle of his writing, decked out with rhapsodic effusion and cutting wit, can make him seem like a glib showman spicing up a tired act. Stardom has brought with it unwanted attention. But rumors of his affairs with Yale graduate students are legion. I hate to say it, but he rather bragged about it, so that wasn't very secret for a number of years. He wants to make the whole world his kin.
Bloom certainly ingests literature with a greedy gusto.
Falstaff is among his favorite Shakespeare characters and so Bloom is apt to become Sir John, a boisterous wit with a glutton's appetites and a pernicious talent for mischief. The lists are partly a marketing gimmick, partly the nose-thumbing gesture of the inveterate provocateur, though his choices, from the earliest epics through the end of the 19th century, are mostly unexceptionable. When it comes to choosing among his contemporaries, however, Bloom's idiosyncrasies take over. Bloom and his publisher are banking on the lists, hoping they will ignite controversy and boost sales. His enthusiasm for literature is a joyous intoxicant.