The Western Canon

The Books and School of the Ages

By: Harold Bloom

Narrated by: James Armstrong

Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Harold Bloom explores our Western literary tradition by concentrating on the works of twenty-six authors central to the Canon. He argues against ideology in literary criticism; he laments the loss of intellectual and aesthetic standards; he deplores multiculturalism, Marxism, feminism, neoconservatism, Afrocentrism, and the New Historicism.

Insisting instead upon "the autonomy of aesthetic," Bloom places Shakespeare at the center of the Western Canon. Shakespeare has become the touchstone for all writers who come before and after him, whether playwrights, poets, or storytellers. In the creation of character, Bloom maintains, Shakespeare has no true precursor and has left no one after him untouched. Milton, Samuel Johnson, Goethe, Ibsen, Joyce, and Beckett were all indebted to him; Tolstoy and Freud rebelled against him; and while Dante, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens, Whitman, Dickinson, Proust, and the modern Hispanic and Portuguese writers Borges, Neruda, and Pessoa are exquisite examples of how canonical writing is born of an originality fused with tradition.

©1994 by Harold Bloom (P)1997 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Outstanding--a Giant Education

Beautifully written, beautifully read. If you want an introduction to the classics of Western literature, and a deeper understanding of what makes them classic look no further. This is it.

Audible Performance only

This review reflects only the audible performance, and not the book per se (I listened to, and read, the book simultaneously).

First, there are numerous instances of pronunciation that amount to fingernails on a chalkboard (FooKALT, DareEEDuh, YEETS) to name a few. Second, there are several instances of splicing where what appears to be recordings from different sessions are merged together with great differences in sound quality and volume. Third, there is virtually no pause between chapters; there is greater pause between some sentences than the chapters themselves. These issues are responsible for my rating of three stars from a performance perspective. The text itself is a typically brilliant example of Bloom's genius (even if a bit loquacious).

interesting, but....

You won't get much out of this if you haven't read the specific books he talks about. He makes no effort to provide an overview before discussing each work. After I while, I just skipped over chapters about works I hadn't read. The sound editing is a little poor in places.

All is Compared to Shakespeare

I first came across this book in my first year of college, a required purchase for a general literature course. Interesting thing was: we never looked inside. I imagine the reasoning behind this was the fact that my college course was not one on Shakespeare’s influence. As amazing an author that Shakespeare was, he is Harold Bloom’s god, and all works and characters discussed herein must be compared to the greatest Shakespearean characters: mainly Hamlet, Iago, Othello, King Lear, and Falstaff. About halfway through the book I noticed that there were not two consecutive pages without comparison to Shakespeare or one of his characters. At first, this bothered me; but, after coming to realize that everyone would be compared, I let it go and enjoyed it.

Also, one might consider it important that you read the books Bloom speaks of before reading this one. There are major spoilers as he breaks down at least one book or poem by each author and, if you’ve not read them, then you’ll be told nearly every intricate part.

James Armstrong’s reading of the book was alright. It took him awhile to begin to read excerpts in a different voice so that, if I had not been reading along, I probably would not have known that someone was being quoted. About a third of the way in, he began to speak as various characters (sometimes taking on accents) and it helped very much. One strange thing was that the ends of chapters were usually in the middle of a track. Also, there was a distinct difference in sound between the beginning of a track and the end, as if it started out muffled and static, but became better.

All in all, the book was great, and I very much look forward to reading and rereading the books discussed in this book. I highly suggest buying the book, though, because there are four appendixes where Bloom lists the most influential authors of their times (along with their most inspiring works.) I have begun a collection of these books and, even if they are not mentioned in the book but just listed in an appendix, they are wonderful.

A personal and opinionated book on the Canon

My main motivation for writing this review is my disappointment in the other reviews here on Audible so far. There are many much better reviews of this very book on amazon.com, and I would urge you to check them out before being discouraged from picking up Bloom's excellent book.

Most of the reviews here so far either complains about the narration or complains about Bloom's personality and choice of books. Bloom's personality and choice of books has been discussed to death in many other reviews (for example the ones on amazon), so I will mainly focus on the narration.

Luckily, the task of defending the narrator, which I think does an excellent job, is eased through the availability of the audio-preview on this page. Be sure to check it out. The sound quality of the actual download is also somewhat better than the preview. Amongst the complaints that are raised is that the narrator does not emulate, say, the French pronunciation of a French name. This seems petty, and perhaps some of the very same people would complain that the narrator was snobbish if he, say, switched to an upper-class Parisien pronunciation of Foucault. Not only does the narrator manage to read a difficult and almost baroque text in a natural way, he also manages to maintain the calmness, humor and humanity that Bloom's text so beautifully contains. In fact, when I read Bloom's other works, I can still almost hear James Armstrong's voice as I read. Bloom's personality has become forever mixed with Armostrong's interpretation of him.

Amongst the reviews here on Audible, the main attack on Bloom's personality and choice of books is raised by Jerry from Topeka. His rhetoric is that of the rebel. However, other than his supposed authority as a college graduate and having read Ulyesses (not particularly strong arguments), he does not offer any good reason for disliking the book as much as he seems to be doing. His stabs seems to be applicable to any opinionated text on the western canon written by someone famous. It seems that Jerry would rather read a boring and distanced academic treatise on the history of literature, but instead got a charmingly grumpy old man's advice to the younger generation. Bloom has summarized his best findings and perspectives from a lifetime of serious reading and interpretation. It is impossible to have time to read everything, so Bloom's advice is much appreciated. Perhaps the most interesting part of Jerry's review is to point out that not all agree with Bloom. Go figure. Bloom has a very personal and esoteric reading style, and is quite the character. Bloom in no way tries to hide his quite literally religious relationship to Shakespeare, and if that seems annoying, this is not the book for you. Bloom's strangeness is so obvious that I do not think anyone is at risk of being seduced by the devil through reading this book, even if you do not have a PhD in literature.

That being said, this is obviously not an easy book, and Bloom actually expects you to sit down and read (or listen through) Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, etc. He motivates why you should use your time on this, and gives some indication on his way of reading some of the master works in the canon. If it is very unlikely that you sit down and Milton's quite difficult, but very rewarding Paradise Lost, this book is not for you. An introduction to literature critique will also be highly recommended, and for example The Teaching Company's course “From Plato to Post-modernism: Understanding the Essence of Literature and the Role of the Author” by Louis Markos would be a very helpful introduction to the subject.

Seminal academic work, clearly presented.

This is a plain and proper reading of an important scholastic work. Bloom is famously opinionated and erudite. It is for a serious person with a deep interest in literature.
His is not the only perspective in the the world, but serious thinkers today are well aware of Bloom’s critical Ideas.
For me he is provocative and enlightening.
This is not a survey or an introduction to literature.

Priceless book, disastrously recorded

Bloom’s masterpiece is essential reading, but this low quality audio version is painful to listen to. Not only is the sound scratchy, but the narrator maddeningly mispronounces common words like “apotheosis” and “libido” and even “poem.”

Do not purchase this audiobook

The audio lacks quality and is not correctly adjusted and divided into chapters. Even if someone adjusts this audiobook the audio is very poor.

The Pompous Dr. Bloom

If the reader enjoys the typical pompous professor of English (or world literature) who loves grinding his ideas into the handiest student(s) available then this is your book. His choice of the 12 great books in the world tradition of great literature and the fact that he decries the lack of same in the present period are especially irritating. A well known (and somewhat respected) authority on Shakespeare he has a tough time not comparing everyone to that great bard. He skips merrily past Chaucer and of course Shakespeare is his first pick. He chooses Proust, questionable at best. He dismisses Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner in one sentence. He picks Joyce's Finnegan's Wake (!?). (At least read Ulysses first!) I was stuck reading Bloom as an undergraduate English major and have never forgiven my professors. I dislike being hammered over the head by an all knowing authority who does NOT know everything. Aside from Joyce and Proust there are other questionable choices such as Kafka. He passes over Dostoyevsky but does choose Tolstoi. He spends a good deal of time trying to justify (apologize?) for this ommision and winds up looking the fool with an incredibly inane argumet. He apparenly only wants one Russian on his list of 12. Proust or Joyce over Doystovevsky? He especially loves to pound this nonsense into the heads of PhD candidates who had better toe the line. Been there and done that. Sigmund Freud as one of the 12 greatest literary writers? Bring you M.A. or be very well read or you'll be spoon fed a lot of drivel. Avoid this and other works by Bloom at all costs with the possible exception of works on Shakespeare. He's one of the best known maverick critics of modern times. I am not being egotistical. This professor and critic is widely disliked by many with an M.A. or PhD who can enjoy not bowing to his great ego. Many PhD's are pendantic. Bloom takes it to an all time high.

They ought to re-record it

My critique pertains solely to the recording itself. The sound quality is acceptable, but sounds as though you're listening to a slightly damaged analog audiotape. The narrator mispronounces a few names and in one instance mispronounces Foucault as "fo calt" and then roughly a half hour later pronounces it correctly. I found this particularly annoying. The content itself is interesting and, of course, well written, but I wish I'd bought the hard copy of the book. I wasted my money on this audiobook.